Robert Hansen (1931-2021)
Aug. 25—Robert Hansen, a certified public accountant and accounting professor at the University of Toledo who encouraged students in the profession as he taught its intricacies, died Aug. 13 in Hospice of Northwest Ohio, Perrysburg Township. He was 89.
He was in declining health after a fall in July, but had been dealing with the effects of Type 1 diabetes since age 15, said his wife, Nancy.
Mr. Hansen, who had a doctorate in business administration, retired in the late 1980s from UT — one of three retirements from academe. He'd taught at UT in the early 1970s and returned in 1978 as chairman of the accounting department.
"He was very interested in students. He was always available to help them. He would give them his home phone number," his wife said. "He was very gregarious and liked to be around students."
UT students of his, in online condolences, wrote that he imparted knowledge — and common sense — and recalled his mentorship with appreciation.
"He was very personable," his wife said. "He loved to teach. He was good at it."
He received his bachelor of business administration degree from UT and discovered his affinity for working with students while a teaching assistant at Indiana University, from which he received his master of business administration degree and his doctorate.
His first teaching position was at Kent State University. Four years as accounting chair at Morehead State University in Kentucky followed his first stint at UT. He then taught at the University of Detroit and closed his career at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Ky., while retaining professor emeritus status at Toledo.
He and his wife remained in Kentucky until January, when they moved to Perrysburg to be near a daughter. On their large property, he devoted an acre to his garden and liked to tend his yard. With produce from the garden, blueberry bushes, and pecan trees, the couple had plenty to share with neighbors and friends.
He was licensed as a CPA in Ohio and Kentucky and helped businesses and colleagues with tax and other matters, although he never had a full-fledged practice, his wife said.
He was born Oct. 22, 1931, in Decatur, Ill., to Arlowyne and George Hansen, the second of what would be five children. The family later settled in Lenawee County, Michigan. Mr. Hansen attended Clinton High School and was a 1949 graduate of Adrian High School.
A woodworker, he made furniture and, for friends' children and his grandchildren, wooden toys. He'd been an oil painter.
"He liked to make things and loved to grow things," his wife said. "He was very artistic."
Surviving are his wife, the former Nancy Mae Wyant, whom he married Aug. 22, 1959; daughters, Julia Pasternak, Joyce Huber, and Linda Hansen; son, Eric Hansen; brothers, Norval and Jesper Hansen; sister, Elsie Misner, and seven grandchildren.
No local visitation or services are planned. Arrangements are by the Witzler-Shank-Walker Funeral Home, Perrysburg.
The family suggests tributes to the Robert E. and Nancy Hansen Endowment Fund at Morehead State University, Morehead, Ky.; the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, or Hospice of Northwest Ohio.
