He was the guy, they would say, who Barbra Streisand might have had in mind when she sang, “People who need people are the luckiest people in the world.”

In the wake of Bargman’s death May 19, two days before his 93rd birthday and nearly 40 years after he left the principal’s position, several of his former FDSH educators who were close to him had these thoughts to share:

Don Miller: “I can’t say loud enough about how much he cared about students and teachers. He was the kind of person to go above and beyond for the students and teachers. For kids who might not have a thing, he’d buy them shoes, coats, he would do anything necessary to get them focused on education. He was always reaching out to help someone.”

Rose Buda-Claussen: “He walked through his precious life with caring, generosity and kindness. His human flaws cannot hide the fact that he was a ‘beautifully interesting’ being.”

Roger Snell: “Bob was truly a unique individual whose basic kindness, decency and good intent carried throughout his whole life. That was who he was and how he lived. It was always a blessing to know and work with him.”

Debra and Don Carlson: From Debra, who Bargman hired as a special education teacher: “Bob had a heart of gold. He was a giving person, and he could always lift you up, even when you were having lousy days. He could light up a room. Everyone was drawn to him. He was a Dodger through and through.”

And from Don, who was assistant principal during Bargman’s tenure at FDSH: “He was an honest man, and fair, and he was always looking after the students. He was willing to do anything for education. I will greatly miss him as a man and as my friend.”

Sheryl Griffith: I remember that he always had his faculty, staff and students’ best interests at heart. A co-worker, Judy Payne, and I made him some very wide ties out of garishly patterned fabric. What a good sport he was to wear them to work. In our defense, that was the style!”

There are stories aplenty of Bargman during the years from 1970 to 1985 when he directed operations at the high school during some challenging years — soaring enrollment from the Baby Boom generation, protests over the U.S. involvement in Vietnam, inequality in women’s sports that Title IX had yet to remedy. Among those stories:

Imagine, your principal dressed as Baby Huey. Said Snell: “One year at homecoming, Bob got hustled into playing the role of the cartoon character Baby Huey in a skit put on by the FDSH administrators. Bob’s ‘costume’ for the whole school assembly had him appearing in a huge white diaper (approximately the size of half of a U.S. Army pup tent) and sneakers. Yes, “That’s ALL, Folks!!”

Imagine, showing up for a mandatory remedial driving school class on a Saturday morning and learning you were sitting next to your high school principal. Said his daughter Beth Bargman Schnurr: “Dad would always leave quickly after work to go to some school event. He’d drive fast, usually late getting somewhere. After getting too many speeding tickets, he got notice to go to Saturday driving school. And of course, when he showed up that morning, there were high school students there.”

Imagine, living out of your car because of unrest at home and being provided a bed and a meal by your high school principal. Said Beth: “He was very interactive with students. I know he would try to find a job or duty or errand that kids would have to do to keep them busy or occupied so they wouldn’t get in trouble. The basement of our home was set up with extra furniture for kids to come and live, kids in transition, who needed help. We’d share our dinner table with them at times.”

Keith Brown recalled entering his senior year at FDSH in 1970 as student body president. His parents were moving from Fort Dodge to Everly and said that in order to stay for his senior year, living with his older brother, he was required to pay tuition of $100 a month.

“When Mr. Bargman moved to Fort Dodge, he immediately asked me (as student body president) to a lunch to discuss student issues,” Brown said. “He was kind and listened honestly to my concerns. He would invite me to his house for dinner with his wife and children several times. He knew I was living in an apartment and understood that my nourishment schedule probably wasn’t the best. Boy, was he right.

“Each month on the first, I would write a check to FD Public Schools for $100. To cover the agreed-upon tuition. He would take me into his office and spend an hour asking how I was doing, how my band was doing and would give the most wonderful pep talks. I was so amazed at his kindness. But the best part was to come.

“Two days before graduation, he called me to his office (over the course of my sophomore and junior years I had been sent home 14 times.) I believe that is a record. So I thought ‘Here we go again!’ He sat me down in his office and pulled out an envelope with my name on it…inside were the (10) checks of $100…He had kept my tuition checks but never cashed them…Such a sweet gesture! The lesson I learned – There ARE good people in this world; if you’re decent and hardworking, one may come to your rescue.”

Faculty and staff were equally important to Bargman, said Buda-Claussen, who was hired by Bargman as guidance counselor at the high school and knew him for more than a half-century.

“Bob went above and beyond for his faculty like planning wonderful Christmas breakfasts executed with beautiful decorations, a sit-down meal, and a gift exchange,” she said. “There was great fun such as a basketball game between faculty and students with female teachers acting as cheerleaders with pom poms and the works. Years after Bob retired from Senior High School and had moved away from Fort Dodge, he returned and organized a Faculty Alumni Reunion. The response was magnetic, and alumni even traveled from out-of- state for the event. Lifetime faculty friendships were formed because of Bob’s influence.

“Bob had an enviable memory – of people, their names, their stories, places and events – that remained intact through his lifetime. He graced his wife and their children with immeasurable love and respect. He revered food and whenever he traveled, he would say, ‘We have to stop for pie.’ He loved to work and worked into his 80s. He was smart, refined, played the piano, and admired the arts. He was a baseball guy.”

Ah yes, his love of pie. Don Miller recalled road trips with Bargman and “his unique way of ordering food — when we’d go to a restaurant, he’d order a hamburger and French fries and tell the server, ‘I’d like to have a piece of apple pie with ice cream, and I would like to have it now.’ So while we were eating our burgers and fries, Bob was enjoying his pie and ice cream.”

Robert William Bargman’s story began with his birth May 21, 1931, in Rodman, about an hour north of Fort Dodge. He was the oldest of three children of Vic and Viv Bargman who farmed near Rodman. His brother was Jim Bargman, who is deceased, and his sister is Karen Berkeland, of the Omaha area. All three graduated from Rodman High School. The Rodman/West Bend area was where he met Donna Balgeman, to whom he was married for nearly 73 years.

After graduation from Buena Vista University with a degree in education, Bargman joined the U.S. Army and he and Donna moved to Washington, D.C., where he worked in the Surgeon General’s Office. After completing his service, they moved to Akron, Iowa, where he began his teaching career.

Bargman taught in the English department, coached debate and produced school plays. He earned his master’s degree from the University of South Dakota and later served as principal in Akron. Their next move was to West Des Moines where he was hired as a drama teacher at Valley High School, where he produced the first musical at that school. The Bargmans left Iowa for northern California in 1961 with their two young children, Robb and Beth, and during their 10 years there, he transitioned from teacher to administrator, taking doctorate work at Stanford University.

He learned of the principal’s opening at FDSH, applied and was hired by Dr. Earl Berge, then superintendent of Fort Dodge Community School District.

Bargman wasted little time in bringing new ideas to the job, as noted in the 1971 Dodger yearbook. They included a “mini-course,” where experts were brought in on Saturdays to speak to any subject students were interested in; cross-age tutoring, involving both the high school and elementary school levels, and a roundtable, founded to give students a chance to talk about problems and get to know the administration better.

“He always liked change,” Beth Schnurr said, “and he liked change in education too. He had some innovative thoughts even in California. Dad liked change in his life. He liked hanging out in the cafeteria with lunch ladies, getting to know kids, not staying in his office.”

Beth and her brother Robb were both students at FDSH while their dad was principal but said they never felt awkward about it. Both were involved in student government. Robb was involved in the drama department and Beth took part in orchestra and choir.

“It felt very natural to be there and knowing he was there,” Beth said. “We had good high school years, were not embarrassed at any time. He would always go to activities we were in, always had teachers at our house eating supper. It was common. I felt people liked him, he was pretty fair to the kids.”

Robb, 67, lives in Des Moines and was involved in retail management, working for Younkers and JCPenney. When he retired five years ago, he joined Nordstrom Rack in a part-time capacity.

Beth, 63, followed her father into the teaching profession. She taught kindergarten and held various positions in the Fort Dodge school district before retiring as a special education teacher for grades K-4 five years ago. She and her husband Jerry Schnurr, a Fort Dodge attorney, have three children: Will, who with his wife Erin Leigh lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.; Ellen, who with her husband Tyler Wallingford lives in Fort Dodge and have two children, Elsie and Theo; and Ben, who with his wife Lauren live in Fort Dodge and have two children, Kennedy and Wesley.

Ben Schnurr is the third generation of the Bargman family in teaching; he is a health teacher at the Fort Dodge Middle School.

After leaving FDSH after the 1984-85 school year, Bargman worked for A.G. Edwards, the furniture store Interior Expressions in the Trolley Center and at Friendship Haven. He and Donna eventually moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where they established their permanent home for 20 years. There, Bargman took a job as head of concierge with the San Francisco Giants spring training camp as well as working at the ceramics department at Arizona State University. Debra Carlson recalled that when the Dodger marching band took part in the Fiesta Bowl parade in the late 1990s, she spotted Bargman along the parade route: “There was Bob, with tears pouring down his eyes, smiling at the band, and shouting, ‘There’s my school!'”

The Bargmans moved back to Iowa, first living in Des Moines, and then returning to Fort Dodge.

Living at Friendship Haven with his wife Donna for the past three years, Bargman remained engaged in life until its very end.

“On the Friday two days before he passed,” his son Robb said, “he was reading The Messenger when I came into the dining area and he asked, ‘What’s new?'”