Robert E. Mohr [Father of Shannon Mohr] 1926-2012

[Zoneboy]

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Robert E. Mohr, a union painter and former business manager of his local who was in the public eye as he and his wife, Lucille, pursued an investigation that led to the conviction of their daughter's killer -- her husband -- died March 29 in his San Diego home. He was 85.

He was in ill health for more than a year, said his grandson Brian Mohr.

The Mohrs, formerly of Point Place, spent much of their retirement in St. Petersburg, Fla. Mrs. Mohr died March 3, 2008. Mr. Mohr moved several months ago to be near his grandson and his wife, Tamika.

Mr. Mohr retired in 1989 from Local 7, International Union of Painters & Allied Trades. He was business manager for the Toledo-based local. His father-in-law, Glen Abrams, had been a Local 7 painter. He followed suit, becoming not just a painter, but a union painter -- "always union when you talk about Bob Mohr," said Sharon Hogan, his sister-in-law.

"He was a natural," said Mrs. Hogan, his wife's sister. "He was a tall man and hard-working and strong beyond belief."

Mr. Mohr was hired through Local 7 for painting jobs in factories and at construction sites.

He related to people, and he was elected when he ran for a leadership post, Mrs. Hogan said.

"He knew the business, that's the most important thing," she said.

The Mohrs' daughter Shannon died July 23, 1980, in what at first was believed to be a fall from her horse as she and her husband, David Richard Davis, rode on their Hillsdale County farm. The Mohrs started to question the circumstances when they learned that Davis was the beneficiary of multiple insurance policies on their daughter's life. The Michigan attorney general's office started a grand jury investigation. Davis was indicted in October, 1981, on charges of murdering his wife. Key was evidence from a laboratory analysis of tissue samples from autopsies that found the presence of a muscle relaxant that can cause death.

Davis became a federal fugitive. He was found in December, 1988, on American Samoa. A television viewer there reported him after a repeat telecast of an Unsolved Mysteries episode. A Hillsdale County jury convicted him a year later.

"They say that time heals all wounds. It doesn't. Not completely," Mr. Mohr told The Blade in January, 1990. "I'll never get over this 100 percent."

Courts at the state and federal level rejected Davis' appeals. He is in a Michigan prison serving a life sentence without possibility of parole.

Mrs. Mohr was the force that urged the matter forward -- "this petite firecracker," their grandson said.

And Mr. Mohr was with her at every stage.

"He was the rock. She was the mover," Mrs. Hogan said.

He was born Oct. 24, 1926, to Eleanor and Raymond G. Mohr and grew up in North Toledo. He was a 1944 graduate of Central Catholic High School. He was in the Merchant Marine during World War II.

He was a former truck driver for Mohr Bros. Bottling Co., a soft drink company and beer distributor.

Mr. Mohr was a member of St. John the Baptist Church and took charge of maintenance and cleanup for the annual festival.

Patience was his approach to most things, his grandson said. "If somebody didn't do right by him, he was, well, they have to live with that, and they'll have time to think about it, and maybe they'll come around," his grandson said.

Mr. Mohr and the former Lucille Abrams married Nov. 13, 1946.

Surviving are his son, Robert Mohr, Jr.; daughter, Teresa Mohr; three grandsons, and two great-grandchildren.

Memorial services in Toledo are pending.

[WishfulDreamer]

He and his wife were strong people who went through so much. May they rest in peace.

[Marvo301]

Robert E. Mohr