by Bethaney Phillips

At Bruna Implement, just east of Clay Center, for decades it was commonplace for mechanics to come in looking for Bob. Part in hand, they’d walk back to his bay and ask questions, want his advice on how something worked and how they can fix it. 

“Where’d all the years go?” he says of his tractor experience. He began working on them in the 1970s and grew in his skills as the machines grew in size.

The nice thing about tractors, he said, was that he could stand up straight, he didn’t have to bend over like you did working on a car. Though concrete standing did a number on his knees – they were replaced twice with multiple surgeries. 

Finally the doctor told him they could be replaced again, but it wouldn’t help. Instead Speltz kept working in pain. Not that you’d hear him complain about it. 

Preferring to stay outside, his wife, Beth, said not much would keep Bob inside. There were smashed toes, then the time he cut his fingers off “just the tops though,” he said. After doctors pieced him back together, Beth said he was out on the tractor, clearing snow. His fingers were wrapped and, keeping them elevated like he was told, Speltz cleared the driveway with his bandaged fingers hanging out the window.

“Nothing ever stopped him or slowed him down,” she said. “It was so funny, it looked like he was out giving the peace sign.” 

After attending Morganville school then graduating from Clay Center, Speltz was drafted to the Navy, where he worked as a mechanic in the engine room of a helicopter carrier, the USS Okinawa.

Requesting brother duty, he actually worked under his brother, Danny, when the pair were stationed out of the Philippines during the Vietnam War.

“I got put with him, which was alright,” he said. “He was in charge of the engine room which was good, he did a good job.”

By ’75 Speltz had returned to Kansas and began working at Allison Equipment, the original business of the current Clay Center Bruna’s. There he took his mechanic knowledge of engines and turned them to tractors. A pivot he would turn into a lifelong career. He began working for Bruna Implement, originally at their Washington location, then retired in the summer of 2024, a company he said was happy to work for all of those years. 

“I always liked working on tractors the best, I don’t know why but I did,” he said. Speltz learned mechanic skills in high school shop class, where he became interested in fixing.

The pair lost their youngest, Kelly, to a drowning accident in 2006. The family later donated a vertical milling machine to the CCCHS metals shop his honor. The older two, Brent and Chris, live in the area and have eight grandchildren between them. 

With their kids to the grands, Beth said Speltz has always been building or fixing vehicles to keep them busy. Giving rides on UTVs or allowing them space to learn and fix. 

Stating that he figured things out has he went, he did the same for his own kids. 

“My Dad was that way too so that’s what I did with my kids – let them figure it out, if I go do it then they’ll expect it,” he said.  

A Lifelong Love

Beth said the pair met on a blind date – to which Bob wasn’t the intended guest. Their mutual connection had meant to set up his younger brother, and Bob had shown instead. However, for Beth, that ended up being a twist of great luck. 

“He walked in and I thought ‘I’m going to marry that guy,’ and I did,” she said. Their first date was a week later, watching the Harlem Globe Trotters perform at the Clay Center High School. 

Speltz said during the game he was heckled by friends who chanted, “Look at Speltz with a school teacher!” He too, said he couldn’t believe he was dating a teacher. Having been what Beth called a “pistol” himself, he had spent many days in the principal’s office for mouthing off or smoking in shop class.

Once, he said he and a friend hid under a car; their teacher thought the car was on fire and hit them both with the fire extinguisher. 

Even in adulthood, Speltz continued his ornery ways. Beth said she bought plastic snakes at garage sales so he could play tricks. One was kept permanently in his truck to scare anyone at work who needed to move it, while others were placed when no one was looking.   

“He was always leaving them somewhere to spook someone,” she said. “That’s just Bob.” 

After marrying in 1976, the pair said they’ve lived happily ever since. There’s Bob – who said he would “starve” before he would cook and Beth who willingly burnt food because that’s how he liked it. From raising kids, to sharing the load of their farmland – Beth doing the paperwork and Bob “doesn’t like being stuck inside.,” The pair said they balanced each other’s skills. 

“She took very good care of me, it was a good match,” he said. 

Pictures top to bottom: 1) Bob Speltz, Bobby to his family, served in the U.S. Navy as a mechanic from 1972-1975.  2) Bob’s oldest two grandsons, Kellen and Rece, visit him at work. 3) Back row, left to right: the Speltzes sons, Brent, Kelly, and Chris. Front row: Bob and Beth. 4) For the Piotique Parade, Piotique parade, Bob and Dave Allison, owner of  Allison Equipment ride in a carriage. The pair rigged two mowers to serve as “horses” to pull the carriage.