Rural Heritage June/July 2025

Publisher's Post M any of you have already learned of my dad’s passing April 13, 2025. I have written about him over the years in this column. When the Draft Horse Journal did a feature article on him and my mother, Bob and Mary Mischka, many years back, I recall the then editor and publisher Lynn Telleen telling me he likes to print tributes while people are still alive, rather than after they’ve passed. I am glad to have written about my dad in time for him to have read it. As this will likely be the last time I cover the same ground, I ask your indulgence. My dad had been, by far, the most influential person in my life. My mother passed away in July 1997 at a horse show in New England. Few days go by that I don't think of her: transplanting snapdragons in the flower beds, baking bread, cooking hearty dinners and canning homegrown vegetables in the kitchen. She was always intrested in her five boys, encouraging each of us to be individuals, cultivating our interests and passions. My dad, however, spent most of his time working rather than getting close to his sons. He tended to be quiet and generally eschewed social gatherings and events. I recall many times when we would have company, my father would be in the field or barn taking care of something he said couldn’t wait. Since his passing, many people have told me he was the hardest-working person they knew. More than anything else, that has been his hallmark. He worked

hard at every job he had — first at United States Steel in Pittsburgh, then at Norwood Mills in Janesville, Wis., and Tymar in Beloit, Wis., before starting his own publishing business with the first draft horse calendar in 1980. He (and my mother) later published a dozen or so coffee-table and reference books on draft and carriage horses and mules, many of which we continue to sell today. They started a mule calendar and, later, a driving horse calendar. After my mother's death, I joined the family business and worked with my dad for about 10 years before my wife, Susan, and I bought him out and moved the business to Iowa. He continued taking photos for the calendars for many more years and later began a local sports photography career. He and my brother, Peter, were on the road most weeknights and weekends taking photos of whatever high school sports were in season. I always told him he took better photos than some photographers shooting pro sports. It wasn't until he died and I began following his end of-life directions, putting his affairs in order, that I began to realize the impact he’d had in Walworth County. Just about every person I spoke with — from the funeral home director, to the teller at the bank, from a local estate attorney to the cemetery administrator — told me about photos they had at home of their children in high school sports, or , just as often, photos of themselves when they were in high school years ago. I shouldn’t have been surprised. The same is true of the carriage horse community. And the draft horse world. I don't know how many horse photos he took over the years, but I would guess it was north of 50,000. In the days of film, he would have duplicate

Bob Mischka driving a unicorn hitch of mares with my late brother, Justin, riding beside him.

Bob Mischka plowing with three of his mares.

June/July 2025

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