Published Sunday, August 3, 2008

Robert Peter "Bob" Casati, 57, died Wednesday, July 30, 2008.

A family service is planned.

Bob was born Jan. 2, 1951, in Nuremberg, Germany, to U.S. Col. Robert H. Casati and Jane Casati.

In his life he was a father, son, brother, uncle, artist, sportsman, salesman, gallery owner, teacher and friend.

He was a 1969 graduate of Hickman High School. There he excelled in football and track and was a class president. At the University of Missouri, he studied art and was a member of the freshman football team and Phi Delta Theta fraternity. He graduated from Columbia College with a bachelor of fine arts in 1975 and earned a master of fine arts from the University of Cincinnati in 1978.

From youth through adulthood, he won many art awards. His collections are found in colleges, businesses and homes, locally and elsewhere. A diorama depicting the evolution of man is a permanent fixture at the MU School of Anthropology. A mural, painted in North Carolina, where he spent many years, can be seen in the Kevin Costner movie "Bull Durham."

"Bob was a hell of a good artist," said Columbia College retired art Professor Sidney Larson, who mentored Mr. Casati. He was a fine gentleman and friend to everybody he encountered."

Marion Guffey, who knew Mr. Casati for most of his life and owns several of his art pieces, recalls the time he brought her a painting. "He showed up at my house one Christmas dressed as Santa Claus and produced a gift from underneath his outfit. It is a beautiful watercolor and rivals any Monet I have ever seen. Bob was very gifted. He always had humor, which I will miss," Mrs. Guffey said.

His nephews remember him for orienting them to art and the outdoors.