When most people retire, even from a place where they’ve worked for decades, the goodbyes may linger for a while. But eventually the connection with work friends is diminished or lost altogether.
When Bob Hafer retired, his work friends decided to have a February party in his honor. And then they kept having it annually around this time, for years.
We called it The Hafetational, a big goofy bowling party that virtually the entire Patriot-News sports staff attended – even those who neither knew how to bowl nor particularly wanted to be seen trying, with some embarrassment.
It didn’t matter. Nobody wanted to say goodbye to Hafe. So we didn’t.
Now, we must.
Our comrade was one of those rare folks who knew all sorts of valid reasons to frown yet so often smiled instead. He served as an Army intelligence officer during the Cuban Missile Crisis, covered serious stories for over a decade as a police and courts reporter. Later, he would migrate to sports where he became an award-winning Division II football writer, specializing in the PSAC.
Yet, he made his name at The Patriot-News writing about perhaps the friendliest of sports.
And friends, he made, all over the midstate and across Pennsylvania as one of the preeminent bowling writers in the nation. Bob Hafer’s bowling column was known both at a local level and among the Professional Bowlers Association Tour big shots.
Bob Hafer began as a copy boy and eventually worked for 47 years at the Patriot-News.
But his gift was as a collegial human. He was the perfect member of a staff – inclusive, level-headed, able to bust stones and accept in kind, and all about his craft.
Former Patriot-News sports editor Nick Horvath saw that, almost from the start to the finish of Bob’s career:
“In terms of work, he had such attention to detail. He mentored me as a cub reporter. I was still in college and working in the sports department. And I’ll tell you what, he wasn’t easy on me. Really a stickler and studious about his work.
“As the years progressed, in my mind, he really evolved into just a terrific human being. A team player, a great journalist, respected in the community, particularly among the bowling establishment, far and wide. I just can’t say enough.”
Bob Hafer passed on Thursday morning at his home in West Hanover Twp. at the age of 82. He is survived by Edna, his wife of 58 years; son Eric, daughter Laura, 4 grandchildren and a whole community of extended family and friends, both professional and personal. They actually sort of melded together.
The old southpaw about to live dangerously out by that #1 board.
The comradeship Bob built among amateur and professional bowlers was one and the same. Well-known brothers Gary and Darryl Bower, who run the three Automatic Bowling Centre establishments in the Harrisburg area, bowled both as amateurs (Gary) and professionally (Darryl) around the country. They counted Bob as more than an associate but a friend.
Gary Bower, president of ABC West Lanes, said that when he was inducted into the United States Bowling Congress Hall of Fame in 2001, Hafer went along and was known to many nationally:
“Everybody knew Bob Hafer. Whether it was local, state, national. And I know all the bowling community admired what we got in The Patriot-News when Bob was writing.”
Jim Tomek Jr., an accomplished PBA Tour pro from Camp Hill, said Hafer could be depended upon to be at every regional tournament:
“I know when I was on the Tour, I could always count on him to be at any event within driving distance or call me, just to put something in the paper about how I was doing that week, how I felt my year was going. He talked to the top players to get their perspective on the game.
“And I know the guys were very appreciative of Bob because he did such an excellent job of covering bowling in this area. When they came to Harrisburg and had Bob Hafer here to cover the events, they knew they’d get good coverage. A lot of places we’d go, there was no local press like that.”
Bob Hafer (right) and David Jones (left) present Jeremy Elliott (center) with one of his many Hafetational trophies.
But what set Hafer apart from many others was his sunny personality. Jeremy Elliott followed him in covering the sport for The Patriot-News and PennLive with Bob’s retirement in 2002 after 47 years at the paper. And while Elliott, a scratch bowler who competed in many local and regional tournaments, owned the cachet of being superior at the sport itself, he witnessed firsthand the ease with which Bob mixed and befriended the pros and amateurs alike:
“He was beloved. Everybody liked Hafe. He’s one of the few guys who the bowlers liked, the proprietors liked, and who just had a great rapport with everybody.”
And when ABC West hosted the PBA Tour’s Greater Harrisburg Open, televised live by ESPN, Hafer was in his glory, always seated in the front row of spectators with the family and VIPs.
“The big-name players – Ryan Shafer, Bob Vespi, Mike Aulby, Johnny Petraglia, we’re talking Hall of Fame guys – when they came into the area, he was revered,” said Elliott. “You saw that whenever you covered one of the PBA events with him. He was engaging, people loved talking to him. But more, they respected him.”
Hafer began his writing career at the Patriot-News as a hard-news reporter and helped cover the 1972 flood resulting from Hurricane Agnes.
Born in 1937 in Pottsville, Bob moved to Harrisburg as a young boy and eventually graduated from Susquehanna Twp. High School. He soon after met his future wife in a church group when she was still a student at Central Dauphin High. Edna asked him to her junior prom in 1958:
“He was very outgoing and I had lived a very sheltered life. He was kind of a take-charge person, knew places to go, things to do. But very kind and caring.”
Three years later in October 1961, they were married at Zion Lutheran Church in Penbrook. After a simple ice-cream-and-cake reception at the church, the young couple loaded their gifts in the car and it was off to Fort Bragg, N.C. where Bob would serve two years in the U.S. Army.
On the way, they dined at a Washington, D.C. hotel at which a band was playing. The gregarious Hafer, a drummer during high school, ended up sitting in for a few numbers with the restaurant band.
Bob and Edna during her Central Dauphin High junior prom in 1958.
Among his other duties in Army intelligence in the psychological warfare sector, Hafer wrote the copy on leaflets that were dropped over Cuba during the foiled Bay of Pigs invasion early in the Kennedy administration.
In 1963, the couple moved back home and eventually to what would become their home of 47 years in West Hanover Twp. They spent the past 9 in a nearby townhouse.
It was in the comfy rec room of that beautiful home on Pheasant Road that I was welcomed during my first months at The Patriot-News, more than 30 years ago. My wife and I knew nobody in Harrisburg. We’d come for the job.
Bob Hafer was the first person on staff to invite me over – for a few games of pool with some other guys at the paper. It was there that I had my first Yuengling, served with a smile and pride of his Pottsville roots.
When he retired a dozen years later, we didn’t want to let him go. So, we didn’t. The Hafetational was an ode to his spirit. We always had him throw the first ball with his low-slung southpaw delivery, then imitated the crowd cheering at a big PBA event once ball hit lane. Always hilarious. Especially if a solid 10 pin elicited our “Ohhhh!” followed by the obligatory respectful applause.
The Patriot-News sports staff surrounds Bob Hafer (striped shirt at center) after the inaugural "Hafetational" bowling event in 2002.
Then 12 or 14 of us, along with our kids, would engage in a sport with which we had little expertise other than Elliott and a couple of others. Hey, we weren’t there for the bowling. We were there for each other.
Hafe knew the game. But beyond it, he brought us together. And that was his gift to a whole city.
The life of Bob Hafer will be celebrated on Sunday and Monday in Harrisburg.
A viewing is to be held from 4 to 6 p.m. on Sunday at Hetrick-Bitner Funeral Home, 3125 Walnut Street.
Visitation will be from 10 to 11 a.m. on Monday at The Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd, 3700 Rutherford Street. The service will begin at 11 with luncheon immediately following.
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February 22, 2020 at 10:26AM
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In memory of our dear friend and colleague Bob Hafer, 82, an award-winning Patriot-News sportswriter - PennLive
"colleague" - Google News
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