Robert J. "Bob" Fenlon was a St. Paul guy, born and raised on the West Side, and when he settled in for a legal career, he chose a firm headquartered in a downtown building with the glowing red "1st" sign atop it. "That iconic First National Bank Building will be forever known to us as dad's office," said Carrie Rasmussen, the youngest of his six children.
Fenlon, who became managing partner at Felhaber, Larson, Fenlon & Vogt, and who later in life shared in the camaraderie of a group of retirees known at Town & Country Club as "The Boys," died Saturday at age 91.
He was in declining health after a stroke and colon cancer diagnosis, and as such was delighted to have been able to attend mass one last time recently in his favorite Highland Park area chapel, his daughter said.
Before beginning work as an attorney, Fenlon was an Army veteran recruited in 1946 to play football at the University of Cincinnati. He was a lineman on a team filled with older players who also played football together in the military, son Steve Fenlon said. With their talent, and the coaching innovations of future NFL legend Sid Gillman, Fenlon played in three bowl games as a Bearcat. He also coached for and developed a lifelong friendship with Gillman.
Figuring his future wasn't in recruiting 17-year-olds to Cincinnati, Fenlon returned to St. Paul and joined the firm now known as Felhaber Larson. Over the next 50 years, he would be "revered by his clients for his incisive and tenacious approach to labor negotiations" and respected by union leaders "as a tough but honorable adversary whose word was his bond," the firm remembered this week.
His work on behalf of Old Dutch and Kemps also kept the family's Macalester-Groveland home filled with foods the kids enjoyed, Rasmussen said.
At Town & Country Club, Fenlon, a future club president, honed his golf game, scoring three holes-in-one — one on the day of Steve Fenlon's groom's dinner. Bob Fenlon, hoping to squeeze in four holes, instead had to complete a full 9 to officially register his feat.
"My mom was there thinking, 'Where is he now?' " Steve Fenlon said. "He was beaming when he walked in."
Mary Patricia "Pat" Fenlon died in 1994, and in "The Boys," Bob Fenlon found kindred spirits. Each had lost a spouse, and would never remarry. They played golf together, and as they grew older, bent the rule book a bit. They'd leave balls in the sand rather than risk injury. Two putts on the green were good.
"It was a case of 'we earned it,' " Steve Fenlon said.
Every Thursday, the men dressed up for dinner and adjourned to a table at the club where the staff placed a card reading simply, "The Boys." It was the "Thursday night roundtable," and for years, Steve Fenlon said he, too, was not about to miss it. "The debates, oh, the debates, boy, they were incredible," he said. "Everyone was smart and you had to put your seat belt on to participate."
Members went to mass together, too, in a chapel at Carondelet Village in St. Paul. After mass, they enjoyed "a bit of cheer," Rasmussen said, before heading home. For Fenlon, that meant traveling to an assisted living center in Spring Park before the family learned recently that an 18-month wait to move to Carondelet Village was over. Nine days after the move, Fenlon died, insisting until the end he was a lucky guy. "He was just so happy to be back in St. Paul," Rasmussen said.
He also is survived by a son Paul and daughters Ann Garlinghouse, Sheila Bergren and Shannon Mather; sisters, Mary Bednorz and Eileen Cullen, and 20 grandchildren and 17 great grandchildren. Surviving members of "The Boys" include John Eibert, Willis Forman, George Kronschnabel, William Madden, Dr. Joseph Sprafka, C.E. Von Feldt and Dr. Thomas Votel. Services have been held.
