Thursday, June 4, 1998 | 10:26 a.m.
During World War II, Bob Wilgar's brothers, Bernie and George, gave him the opportunity to manage the family's Las Vegas glass installation company while they went off to defend their country.
Bob, who was unable to serve because of near-fatal head injuries sustained in a diving board accident when he was a teenager, turned them down, saying that he was content in his role as a glazier and had no desire to wear a suit and tie and sit behind a desk.
And, in his 46 years with the local company, he never did.
Robert John Wilgar, the last surviving original partner of Las Vegas' first glass installation business, B.P. Wilgar & Sons, died Monday of heart failure at a local hospital. He was 76.
Wilgar also was a survivor of a 1988 heart bypass operation and two kidney transplants during the last decade.
Services for the Las Vegas resident of 58 years will be at 11 a.m. Friday at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Sixth Ward chapel. Visitation will be today from 6-8 p.m. at Davis Funeral Home and one hour before services at the chapel.
Wilgar was strong man for his size -- though stocky, he stood just 5 feet, 7 inches tall in his prime -- and amazed people with his feats of strength.
"In his younger days, my dad would do one-arm pushups in the glass shop," David Wilgar, a local accountant, said. "He taught us as kids how to do them, but I doubt I could do one today.
"Even at the end, he lifted weights and kept himself in good shape by hiking at Red Rock Canyon. He became such an expert on the area that the park rangers would ask him questions about certain canyons and hieroglyphics."
The family's business was founded in 1940 by Bob's father, Bernie Wilgar Sr., who was traveling with his sons from Utah to California to open a glass shop.
However when they stopped in the then-sleepy, dusty desert town of Las Vegas, they decided instead to open B.P. Wilgar & Sons here because there were no other glass companies in operation.
Bernie Sr. was killed in a local truck accident in the 1940s, David Wilgar said. The business was renamed the Wilgar Bros. Glass Co., by which it was known for the next four decades.
Bernie Jr. worked mostly in management. George was a glazier for many years and later became a manager. Both preceded Bob in death.
Bob retired in 1986.
The company then was operated by the Wilgars' cousins for a number of years before it closed.
Meanwhile, another relative, Glade Wilgar, opened a rival company called Wilgar Glade & Sons Glass Co., which remains in business today, carrying on the Wilgar tradition of providing glass fixtures to the Southern Nevada community.
At one time, the Wilgar family installed windows in nearly every casino, business and home in the valley.
Born Sept. 7, 1921, in Oakland, Calif., Bob Wilgar moved with his family as an infant to Utah. While attending high school in Murray, he fractured his skull on a diving board and was not expected to survive.
"He was very fortunate to have survived because they just didn't know back then how to treat such an injury," David Wilgar said. "During his long recovery, he was written up in medical journals -- that's how surprised the doctors were that he made it."
After being released from the hospital, Wilgar quit school and was trained by his father to become a glazier. It would be the only job he ever had.
"My father was a very hard worker," David Wilgar said. "And he was a very giving person.
An example of that occurred when Wilgar went on his long hikes. He collected golf balls that had been hit into the desert and gave them to local shop owner who sent them to a man in the Philippines who cleaned them up and resold them there.
"That simple act by my father enabled that man to to put food on his family's table," David Wilgar said. "My father would go out of his way to help anyone he could."
In addition to his son, Wilgar is survived by another son, Dana Wilgar of Junction, Utah; three daughters, Jerrie Kearnes of Mesquite, Jackie Jones of Henderson and Judy Black of Las Vegas; a brother, Mickey Wilgar of Utah; 17 grandchildren; and 23 great grandchildren.
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