Our guest, Bob Schubert, is the father of accomplished sculptor, Spencer Schubert. Spencer has dedicated his life to perfecting the art of capturing the likeness of people in his sculptures. At the start of each project, Spencer researches the subject’s story and their personality, and then impresses that into the clay which ultimately serves as the basis for the bronze mold.
The list of Spencer’s works is long, but to name just a few, they include:
- Bill Snyder, the Hall of Fame, Kansas State head coach, known for the “greatest turnaround in college football history”
- Marcus Aurelius & Seneca, the famous stoics.
- Buck O’Neil, Baseball legend and Negro Leagues Ambassador
- William Webb, the first American Naval architect. The William Webb statue is prominently displayed at the Webb Institute College of Engineering in Glenn Cove, New York.
Spencer and his siblings Kim, Bethany, & Fletch are fortunate to have Bob as their father. He’s a terrific guy and he shares some great stories and parenting insights in this episode of Fathering Excellence.
Spencer’s studio website can be found here: https://www.esschubert.com/
Photo of Schubert family by: Liz Davenport
Spencer at work in his studio
Spencer leading the Judge Isaac C Parker installation
William Webb sculpture
Marcus Aurelius bust
Video about Spencer and his studio (includes footage of the William Webb sculpture installation)
Transcription likely contains some errors. Enjoy the episode!
Jonathan V.: Well, Bob, thanks for being here. Really appreciate it, very much looking forward to talking with you. Starting out, having one of your children, Spencer, as a sculptor, I would imagine it would be rewarding to be able to go around and see all of the things that he has created. To be able to go to the hall of famous Missourians and see, I think the majority of busts that were sculpted by Spencer since 2011, to be able to see the legendary Kansas State University football coach, Bill Snyder, standing 11 feet tall. And others in Arkansas, New York, all of these amazing works that came from your, your son’s hand. How rewarding is that for you as a father?
Bob Schubert: Oh, it’s just a thrill. We try to make every installation there is. Matter of fact, we have kidded that the other siblings that it’s kind of pity we can’t come to their office and watch them work like we do with Spencer daily, the results of his work, but it isn’t practical obviously, but we still recognize their efforts as well as Spencers.
Jonathan V.: So, you have two boys and two girls. What do the other ones do?
Bob Schubert: Well, Kim is a pretty high up and the structure at Kansas University Medical Center. She’s in charge of strategic partnerships. And, Bethany is/was a vice president of a, I call it Head Hunter. There’s more official words, but did very well, was over three, three or four offices. And just within the last year has decided to leave them and form her own company, which is doing very well, so far as well. And Fletch is a nurse practitioner, who’s gradually worked his way up. He’s now he works in an urgent care clinic in Lawrence, Kansas, but he has also gotten into telemedicine and has now gotten his license in about five or six States.
Jonathan V.: That’s fantastic. He will never go hungry, huh?
Bob Schubert: No, I don’t think so. Matter of fact, he’s doing very, very well. It took him a long while to get there.
Jonathan V.: And Bob, what kind of work do you and your wife do?
Bob Schubert: Well, my wife has a hospice chaplain and has been so for about 25 years or so.
Jonathan V.: And what do you do? Well,
Bob Schubert: I’ve been working with computers most of my life, most recently for the last 35 years or so, teaching primarily Microsoft Office, Word, Excel, PowerPoint access, done that at most of the colleges and universities in the Kansas City area did that up through last semester when the higher learning commission dictated for the first time that you can’t teach a subject, unless you have a masters in that subject. And my master’s is not in that subject. So I was screened out of that, but I’m still working a little bit doing some preparing some Excel videos for YouTube to teach people how to use Excel.
Jonathan V.: One of those probably the most underestimated tool in terms of its power and capabilities.
Bob Schubert: I think that’s a good attitude to have towards Excel.
Jonathan V.: So, could you paint a picture for what the Schubert household was like when the kids were young?
Bob Schubert: Oh gosh. Well, I had to chuckle because my wife has always worked, got back to work shortly after the birth of each child usually, realized very quickly that she’d go batty if she had to stay home with the kids all the time. And at one point, one of our daughters was asked by a friend that boy, with both parents working, you had a real problem. Not much family left. Daughter said, Oh, she said every night just about we had supper and everybody was expected to be around the table and be sharing what had happened to them, what they thought about it, et cetera, etcetera. So we had some vigorous supper conversations fairly frequently about what had happened that day.
Jonathan V.: That’s great. So every, every night people were expected to be there and contribute. How do you get your kids to contribute?
Bob Schubert: Well, we’ve always had good conversations. And I think part of the advantage was having Spencer, having three siblings and the advantage for all of them really, because what one didn’t do the other one did in terms of volunteering, and sharing at the dinner table. And then of course, since the others were sharing, those who weren’t sharing at the moment kind of got challenged implicitly to share themselves. And kid each other a lot, challenge each other a lot. So it just became to be expected that you shared with each other and to this day, all four siblings with or without their parents, get together regularly and share things. And it’s really been a good experience.
Jonathan V.: That must be rewarding to see your kids that close as adults.
Bob Schubert: It is, especially when you see so many families where kids are just at each other’s throat or ignore each other and never see each other.
Jonathan V.: Is there anything that you can think of in Spencer’s upbringing that may have predisposed him towards becoming a sculptor?
Bob Schubert: Well, it’s kind of fun, you know, you wonder how somebody like Spencer for instance, gets to do what he did. As you can tell from my vocation and my wife vocation, we didn’t have much of a vocation that was at all similar to what Spencer ended up doing. And I’m not sure that it really helped that much, but I always think of a couple of things that when Spencer was about five years old, I remember putting him out on the driveway with a hammer, several nails, and a couple of pieces of two by four and saying, have at it. Showing him how not to kill his finger. And he just had a ball. Then when I remember when he was in his teens, I think it was. And first of all, we had a small lightning strike on our house and it made the VCR just go kerflooey. So we got a new VCR. And then I said, now, what do you do with a VCR that doesn’t work?
And it occurred to me that I could give that to Spencer and his friend, and they literally tore it apart, spread it from one end of the driveway to the other. And it amazed me how many little green cards were inside that VCR, but they just had a ball trying to figure out what was going on and what was, what. So just another example of exploring what, what makes things tick? Then we had another funny situation. We were over visiting some friends. They had a boy about Spencer’s age and pretty soon they came over and said, we’re bored to tears. So we both said, why don’t you go make some, make something, get some boxes and make something. Well, within a few minutes they were back. And primarily Spencer had made, taped together several cardboard boxes with duct tape in the shape of machine guns. And so they were off to play guns with some machine gun cardboard boxes that Spencer had made.
Jonathan V.: So, he was creating and understanding how things ticked along before he got into actually creating sculptures.
Bob Schubert: Exactly. And then he, one of his jobs in Summer was with section eight housing. I am sure that convinced him that he did not want to do that for a lot of work, but I’m sure he also got a lot more experience with materials to the point where at one point when he was already sculpturing, I said to him, you know, you’re not a sculptor. You just like to make stuff because whenever he, for instance, he’d had a situation of working on a bust and it wasn’t really very convenient to put it on a table or anything. He had wanted a habit high enough, so he could work on it standing up. So we made a lift that would bring it up to where he needed it to be. He just constantly, if you look at his studio, you will see of course, a lot of sculptures, which will also say a lot of things that he has made when there’s a lull of activity, he’ll go make something that he knows he needs, or that’s just fun to make.
Jonathan V.: He’s a real creator of all types of things. So when he was younger, my understanding is he showed an interest in athletics and things other than sculpture as well. Is that right?
Bob Schubert: Oh yeah. Yeah. He played soccer and when he was you know, just in the first few grades of elementary school and then as high school came on, he got more interested in track and football. At one point then went back out for soccer. He’s always loved to play things. Spencer and I kidded about this, but when first several years of grade school, we joined the soccer team we played and I helped coach, and I didn’t know anything about soccer, but I helped. And we switched schools and I said, Spencer, do you want to play soccer this year? He said, well, yeah, I guess so. Well, we played soccer. We joined another team, played soccer. And the next year, without me saying anything, Spencer said, dad, you’re not making me play soccer this year. I said, Whoa, wait a minute. I did not make you play soccer. I just asked you if you wanted to play. Well, what was really funny was he was in high school, but he’s doing something else besides soccer the previous year and came home one day and said, dad, I’m going to play soccer this year. And I said, let’s get one thing straight. I am not making you play soccer. The point being that the perception that the child has of what the parent says could be vastly different than what the parent thinks is coming across.
Jonathan V.: Yeah. That is so true. Were you an athlete as well? Were you encouraging him to participate in sports?
Bob Schubert: We always encourage them to play. And I think we found pretty quickly that playing sports really made them better students.
Jonathan V.: Interesting. How so?
Bob Schubert: Well, I’m not sure why that works, but it’s paying attention to what you need to do to get things done. Of course, playing sports, you don’t get into as much trouble and it just seemed to work. I’m not sure why it worked, but it sure did.
Jonathan V.: I have the sense, I guess, partly based on that comment, but also based on the careers that your children have pursued and the knowledge that Spencer had a scholarship to University of Kansas, I’m sure that was largely based on his artistic abilities, but if you have artistic abilities and D’s, and F’s, you’re not going to get that scholarship. So I would imagine that they were all probably reasonably good or excellent students. How involved were you in proactively managing that to ensure that your kids were getting reasonably good grades?
Bob Schubert: We both, especially my wife, probably even more than I, but just kind of expected that they would get A’s and B’s in whatever they were studying. When a C came along, it was highly questioned as to whether we were doing the job we needed to do. So everybody got the same attitude. And of course, I’m sure the sibling, we had a saying in the family that I’ve used both with the children and with the grandchildren. And that is, the game of sibling is alive and well, every time they start competing with each other or challenging each other. And so it’s almost gotten to be that I can start to quote and every, every child and grandchild can finish it for me. It’s just assumed, I think in the entire family that you’ll do the best job you can at what you’re doing and make it mean something to you and to the public as best you can and whatever it is you want to do.
Jonathan V.: Spencer seems to have been involved in a lot of different. When did he start to get more serious about sculpting?
Bob Schubert: Ironically, Spencer played basketball among other things in high school, and senior year coach decided to cut all, but one or two seniors. And we were scared to death that, that would really be a shock to Spencer’s system. He said, Oh, no, he had already been going to the silver lab and making a lot of things in silver. And I said, it just gives me more time to go to the silver lab. And so he was thrilled to do that. Matter of fact, he was, I think the silver instructor trusted him to take care of the lab and help other students. He made a number of pieces in silver. He had not done really any sculpture in high school at all. He did make one piece, it’s a little wine cup. It sits in a little container. He entered a number of contests in the Metropolitan Area and received several gold medals for those entries. And that particular wine cup went to the museum in Washington, DC and I’m drawing a blank on the name, but it stayed there for two years as a result of him winning a prize in a Metropolitan Area.
Jonathan V.: Wow. When he was a junior?
Bob Schubert: A junior, senior. Yeah.
Jonathan V.: That’s impressive.
Bob Schubert: Yeah. Yeah. And so his scholarship I think was really for silver. So he went to KU on that silver scholarship and was studying silver. And they had a teaching assistant who, when they asked if they could stay that night and work on a particular piece of equipment, that they had used in high school, all by themselves, the teaching assistant said that they could not use it unless she was in the room. And so they got quite upset, wrote a letter to the silver professor and said that they were transferring to sculpture. And that was the beginning of his sculpture career. But he did mostly sculpture from then on his last three years in college.
Jonathan V.: And after that, he proceeded to start his career as a sculptor?
Bob Schubert: As a matter of fact, after Spencer got out of college, he was not going to be a sculpture. He was going to be a rockstar.
Jonathan V.: Really?
Bob Schubert: They had a band that, Oh, they went to at least two States in every direction with gigs that they performed over several years. I think then finally, when he realized he was not going to become a real national well-known star, I think he started thinking about other things and maybe sculpture was really it after all and started making sculptures, had a studio down in the crossroads district. First Friday was very popular back then. It still is, but he would be open on that First Friday night with his work there, sold a few things there, got enough to make a living, and he had some other, other non sculpture work going on to make a living. But gradually the public started to notice what he could do and a new a legislator in the State, Missouri State Legislature, who a Spencer asked him, what do I need to do? Cause he had looked at and admired the sculptures in the Missouri State House, the bust of famous Missourians and asked his Legislator Friend, how do I get in on this? And allegedly, he says, I really don’t know, but he said, the speaker makes the decision. And speaker’s favorite politician is, I think it was Teddy Roosevelt. So Spencer made a sculpture of Teddy Roosevelt and gave it to the speaker. And I think that probably started his career down at the Missouri State House.
Jonathan V.: That’s smart.
Bob Schubert: And of course, then did a number of other sculptures down there. I think he’s got about five or six or seven.
Jonathan V.: So, you’ve got a child in healthcare industry, another who is an executive recruiter, another who works in strategic partnerships, and one who wants to be either a rock star or a sculptor. So how do you respond to that as a father? I just would imagine that there are many parents who would be concerned about their kids’ ability to feed themselves pursuing one of these careers.
Bob Schubert: Exactly. And I think feeding himself has never been an issue. He has always understood that he needs to feed himself. And of course now his wife and children. So he’d have odd jobs, for quite a while he was doing wiring, computer wiring for, I think it was Hallmark Stores and, Oh, there was another one that lost in my mind. But and so he traveled all over the country, rewiring Hallmark Stores and the other ones with computer wiring. So he did that to make a living all the, while he was doing the rock band. And I think to some extent when he started sculpting.
Jonathan V.: When he first expressed an interest in those types of careers in high school, do you recall giving him any particular type of counsel as to how he should think about those as a career choice?
Bob Schubert: No. It seems funny, but my philosophy has always been, you need to do what, you know, you can be good at, I was a little skeptical of a rock band, but if he thought he could make it more power to him, let’s go do it always thinking in the background that maybe sculpture was it. But of course, that, you know, you have to wonder about whether he’s going to make a living doing sculpture too, when he’s considering it. So, but I’ve always been amazed at fathers who, you know, say, you know, since I’m a doctor, you must be a doctor or, since I’m a lawyer, you must be a lawyer, which seems so stupid to me. Because well, as you can see from our family, everybody is doing something different and I think they’re doing it well because they don’t feel like they’re forced to do something they don’t like,
Jonathan V.: Did you ever talk with your kids about money or personal finances or things to that effect?
Bob Schubert: Kind of a bizarre example, but when he was in high school Spencer had just saved enough money to buy a car. And he came across a 25 year old Jeepster commander. He said, Dad, I want to buy this car. And I said, well, let’s take it over local garage where you used to take our cars to, and showed it to the fellow and said, you know, tell us what you think, what condition is it in? What could go wrong? And how much could it cost? And at first he just smiled and shook his head. And I said, now come on and tell us. Then he smiled and shook his head again. I said, come on now really tell us what. He Said, well, this could be go wrong for $1,500. This could go wrong for a thousand. This could go wrong for that. And on and on. And so we came home, I think Spencer was virtually in tears. He said, I want to buy that car. And I said, okay, you can buy the car. I said, what you have to realize is you spend all your money on a car. You don’t have any more money to fix it up. And if it dies, you don’t have a way to get to school and you don’t have any money to fix it up. He said, I want that car. So he bought the car. I think he put about a hundred dollars into it to fix an alternator, to replace an alternator and sold it about six months later for 60% more than he had bought it for.
Jonathan V.: Wow. Well, you helped them to understand all the pros and cons and then let him make his choice and learn from it. And that one, seems like a broken his direction, huh? So there’s never been a parent that hasn’t had disciplinary challenges from time to time. What were some of the approaches that you took to discipline?
Bob Schubert: Well, we always challenged whenever kids got tacky with each other, you know, we always urge them to, you know, take it easy and not be so nasty to the other one. There was always a little tackiness going on from one or the other. There wasn’t any big problem, but it was always, you know, that old sibling rivalry, we’d always try to sit on it as best we can. Both my wife and myself. I think they all turned out pretty well. And it’s interesting. He was a boy scout and got to be a life scout, just didn’t quite get to Eagle. And we used to go, we went down two or three years to a Bartel Campground down in Southern Missouri. And he joined the tribe of Mic-O-Say, which is kind of an honorary thing that you can join if you want to. And prior to that, he was real tacky around the house. I mean, he would pick on his brother, he’d be somewhat nasty to his mother. You know, we just tried and tried and couldn’t quite get him to behave as well as we’d like he was okay, but he was still tacky. And the tribe of Meccasay [?] really pressed hard on you must respect your mother. And he came home a changed kid. And to the point where his mother said, what happened down there at boy scout camp, he is a changed boy. And ever since he said the utmost regard and respect and care for his mother. And it was really a changer.
Jonathan V.: Were you a scout also? And were you involved?
Bob Schubert: Yeah, I think I got the second class and then Spencer got into boy Scouts and our troop kind of disintegrated a little bit. We had very few Scouts more and more moved away or graduated. We had less and less parent involvement. And so I took over as the scout master for a couple of years, not really knowing much about being a scout master, but at least keeping it going for the guys. We had four Scouts, all of whom had made life scout. One of them became an Eagle Scout and I was hoping like the devil that I could get all four to be Eagle Scouts, but never quite made it with the other three. But at least we kept it going for awhile.
Jonathan V.: Spencer has credited hard work as a foundational element to his accomplishments that he wasn’t some gifted sculpture who could just pick up his first clay and create a human image out of it. But he put a ton of work into it. And over time got better and better, is work ethic, something that you instilled in your kids?
Bob Schubert: Well, I hope so. I chuckle, it’s kind of a minor deal in a way, but I remember whenever I was cutting the grass, I always made sure it was edged very carefully. And I think I remember telling Spencer and the other kids too, you know, it isn’t the mowing of the grass that makes it look nice, it’s the edging. Paying attention to that level of detail. And I had to laugh because I don’t know if there was any relationship, but I remember when Spencer was doing the finishing off of the Bill Snyder sculpture for Kansas state, I was down at the studio at one point and he was complaining that I can’t quite get the fold on the back of his leg quite right. And I thought to myself, Holy crap. Who would pay attention to the level of detail that hardly anybody may ever notice, but he did. He wanted to make sure and get it right.
Jonathan V.: Your kids have chores around the house as well?
Bob Schubert: Oh yeah. Yes they did. Everybody. You know, everybody took turns doing the trash.
Jonathan V.: And how about in the summers? So when your kids had summer break from school, what were they doing?
Bob Schubert: Oh, they were finding a job as soon as they were old enough to do you know, any kind of job. I remember the girls worked in a drugstore in Brookside and then the boys worked as cashiers, both hardware store and grocery store as well. There again found out that was a job they didn’t want to do for their whole lives, but at least they earn some money to do what they wanted to do. Like buy cars and stuff.
Jonathan V.: Did you all have any other family rituals or traditions?
Bob Schubert: Went to the Episcopal church regularly. And I think every one of the kids, except Kim, Kim had no interest in it, but Beth and Spencer and Fletch all became acolytes.
Jonathan V.: And what’s that?
Bob Schubert: Basically, they attended the altar church, helped the clergy with whatever needed to be done, much of the time they would carry the cross down the aisle in the procession.
Jonathan V.: Did you and your wife have a split of responsibilities? Did you handle different things or either in a formal way or informally?
Bob Schubert: Probably the most formal one was that my wife cooks and I do the grass and the outside lawn stuff and the money, although I have to chuckle when the joke in the family is that when dad cooks, we go to McDonald’s, which used to be the case all the time. Nobody wants me to cooking because we want a meal that’s enjoyable.
Jonathan V.: Yeah. Yeah. Similar in our household.
Bob Schubert: One of the things that I think contributes to Spencer’s success, certainly first of all, to have a good mother. That’s a good thing to do. And also good siblings. My wife is always concerned about whether any of our children or our children’s spouses have everything they need or doing the most they can, or the grandchildren even, what are they, how are they doing? And are they healthy, etcetera, etcetera. She’s always concerned about that and making comments as appropriate sometimes, but that all contributes as well.
Jonathan V.: Do you recall, or was there a particular approach that you might take to motivating or encouraging your children?
Bob Schubert: No, well, I think the main thing is expressing interest in what they’re doing and complimenting them on good things, telling them that we’re proud of them because we certainly are. And just, you know, being involved with their lives as much as we can.
Jonathan V.: In addition to the Scouts, are there other examples of ways that you were involved in their lives?
Bob Schubert: Well, one of the biggest things, I guess is we have tried to attend just about every event that they might be involved with the girls when they were young, were involved with cheerleading and that kind of thing. Of course, the boys involved in sports. And I tried to, we both tried to be at as many events as possible, of course, cheer them on, comfort them when they had a crushing blow or whatever, but we tried, and matter of fact, we do that with the grandchildren as well, as much as we can. We’ve been at most of the grand, well, I wouldn’t say most, but at least half of the events that grandchildren are participating in. And that just keeps us active in not only the grand children’s lives, but also the kids’ lives.
Jonathan V.: That’s fantastic. So with your kids growing up, what’s your relationship like with them now from a parenting perspective?
Bob Schubert: We’re good friends with them. We have all the children and grandchildren over to our house Christmas morning and we still get together regularly, I would say, Oh, every couple of months anyway, we have a get together with just about everybody there.
Jonathan V.: That’s nice. Was there a point in time from your perspective where it seemed like Spencer had made it, that he had become a successful sculptor?
Bob Schubert: Well most of his sculptures have been within easy driving distance, Jeff City and Southern Kansas, K State, of course. And then he had a contact that I think was through the website to do a sculpture in Long Island, New York, ironically 15 miles from where I grew up. And it was for the what’s called the William Webb Institute. It’s one of the premier Naval architecture schools in the country and William Webb founded it and they wanted to do a sculpture of him. And I thought, wow, now we’re getting out of the immediate area, he’s become more well known outside this area. And then just recently he got a commission to do a big real estate developer in the Long Island area that I think I remember hearing about when I was living there, but I don’t remember too much about it, but both of those came just through the web. So that was really a good feeling. I think he’s really come into his own.
My favorite example and it’s somewhat of a minor example, but we were down at Jeff City, the he did a bust of Robert Heinlein, the science fiction author. And so we were milling around in the legislature waiting for the ceremony to begin. And I started looking at the program was about five minutes before it started. And I said, Spencer, I didn’t realize you were speaking. And he said, I am? Well, five minutes from then he started in and without any hesitation or hamming or hawing or hesitating, told the story about how he had come down to Jeff City for the traditional, you know, grade school visits, the State Capitol kind of thing. And he had noticed all those sculptures in the hall of famous Missourians and that had somewhat inspired him and that his sister Beth had given him a book by Robert Heinlein and he quoted out of it. And it was like he had prepared that speech by spending about five hours on it.
Jonathan V.: That’s incredible.
Bob Schubert: So, I’ve always thought one of the things that you can tell about successful people is they can talk well and they have a command of the English language. They know enough terms to describe what they want to say, and they can do it without a lot of fear and panic. So I was especially pleased to see him do that with Robert Heinlein. I thought he’s made it, he knows he can handle himself.
Jonathan V.: Fantastic. I also love the William Webb sculpture. There’s a terrific video that among other things includes footage of the installation of the William Webb statue at Glen Cove, New York, and I’ll try to remember to put a link to that in the show notes. But one thing that I really love about Spencer’s sculptures is that in addition to their striking resemblance, they really seem to capture the personality of the people they represent. And it’s just remarkable, to me, it seems like it’s the Mark of a true craftsman to be able to do that. Well, I have just a few closing questions. What are three words that you think your kids or your wife might use to describe your parenting style?
Bob Schubert: Encouraging, freedom to do what I want. I have to be involved.
Jonathan V.: Could you expand on the freedom one?
Bob Schubert: Just that they’re free to do what they want as long as it’s making a good contribution to society. I think they know we’re all for it.
Jonathan V.: You had mentioned something, this triggered the memory. You said something to the effect of, you wanted them to do the best they can do in whatever they do. How did you go about instilling that value in them? It certainly seems like it’s something that’s a recurring theme in how you parented.
Bob Schubert: I don’t know that we’ve I can’t remember. Anyway. Oh, well, one thing I had forgotten, I read a book about Jimmy Carter and the preface. I think it was his admission to Annapolis. I’m not sure, but it was an exam he was taking, very important exam and I think he flunked it or didn’t do very well. And he was sharing that with one of his supervisors and the supervisor said, did you do the best you possibly could do? And Jimmy said, well, no. And the supervisor said, why not? And I remember telling that story a few times to the kids and you know, it was, I mean, it sure struck me is whatever you’re doing, why in the world, aren’t you doing it the best you can? What’s the point of not doing that. And it always struck me that how many children don’t seem to figure that one out, even grown adults, but it’s always been implicit I think in what my wife and I had done with the kids, get the satisfaction out of doing it well.
Jonathan V.: Yeah. Those are wise words with the benefit of hindsight, what might you have done differently as a father?
Bob Schubert: That’s funny. I, these days now I’ll ask the grandchildren, you know, that are in high school and they’re just knocking around and not sure what they want to do. Haven’t really thought about it very much. I’ll ask them, what do you think you want to do when you go up? And I think maybe if I’d done that a little more, you know, not that I cared what they did, but that they think about it and figure out, Hey, what can I do with the talents I have when I grow up? Just to make them think a little bit more about it as the years go by. Might’ve been a good help.
Jonathan V.: I’ve just got two questions remaining. What did you learn from your kids or from being a father from fatherhood?
Bob Schubert: They, from time to time, each one of them contributes something that I learned from them, about all kinds of things. About working on a computer in some ways, lectures and nurse practitioners come on strong about all kinds of things. I would kid that if you tell him a medicine you’re taking, you know, he would give you a two hour lecture on what the pros and cons of that medicine are.
Jonathan V.: Good asset to have.
Bob Schubert: Been fortunate enough to be friends with some doctors who trust his knowledge and therefore let him pretty much do doctoring. I think they know, they know that if he runs up against something he’s doubtful about or questioning, that he will come back and ask them before he gets into trouble. So yeah.
Jonathan V.: He’s smart enough to know what he knows and what he doesn’t know?
Bob Schubert: Exactly.
Jonathan V.: Nurse practitioners and physician’s assistants seem like they’re extraordinarily capable and empowered advanced practitioners. So it’s a fantastic career choice, especially for people that want to be involved in direct patient care. And don’t want the long road and student debt involved in becoming a doctor. So lastly, what other advice would you give to other fathers? Either fathers in general, or to fathers who have a child that are interested in pursuing a career in the arts, such as to become a sculptor,
Bob Schubert: Let them do it, let them try it out, let them see how well they can do it. Be careful that they know they can, they need to make a living and they need to be satisfied with what they’re doing and that it’s making a difference out there in the world.
Jonathan V.: Yeah. Well, your kids are certainly making a difference. All of them in their different ways. Bob, it’s been an absolute pleasure talking with you. I really appreciate it. I feel like I learned quite a bit. So thank you very much for your time.
Bob Schubert: Appreciate the opportunity. I learned a lot of things about what I think myself.
Jonathan V.: Great. Well, thanks again for everything. It was really a pleasure talking with you.
Bob Schubert: Thank you. Thank you, Jonathan. Appreciate it. Enjoyed it.