Robert "Boomer" Baumgart

1953 - Sept. 2, 2006

An avid skeet and sporting clays shooter, Robert Baumgart earned his nickname, "Boomer," because he put a lot of gunpowder in his shells.

Baumgart, 53, was president of the Wisconsin Sporting Clays Association for a few years and was inducted this year into the group's Hall of Fame. He died Friday of kidney cancer at his Hubertus home.

He took up the hobby of skeet shooting when he was 19, and after several years he moved on to sporting clays, which are more difficult to shoot.

"It's not the same targets all of the time and you never know what you're going to get - that's what makes it so interesting," said Steve Knoll, who met Baumgart at the Waukesha Gun Club. Baumgart "was very good at it. He made it to master class, and he did it a lot faster than most people."

Participants earn the master class rating by winning shoots and accumulating points, Knoll explained.

Baumgart participated in shooting competitions in Wisconsin and around the country. He also traveled far from home to hunt - elk hunting in Colorado, pheasant hunting in South Dakota with his dog, and to Argentina to shoot birds.

A member of the Wern Valley Sportsmen's Club in the Town of Genesee and the Waukesha Gun Club, Baumgart promoted the sport by encouraging others to get involved in sporting clays and skeet shooting.

He also earned his nickname from his favorite sport, said his wife, Karen.

"It's called reloading (when) you take the shell you shot already and you put gunpowder and put it back into the gun. He put a lot of gunpowder in and it was kind of loud, and he got the nickname," she said.

The couple met when Karen was 13 and he was a year older. He was playing guitar in a band at a party for Karen's eighth-grade graduation class.

"Bob was 6-6 and I was 5-9 and I thought, 'Oh, such a tall man.' He was the handsomest man I'd ever seen," she said.

They got married five years later and had two sons, Richard and Ryan.

Baumgart worked 27 years at Tower Automotive, formerly A.O. Smith, repairing machines. He is survived by his wife and two sons.