Article published November 17, 2009
ROBERT H. SAUTTER, 1919-2009
Downtown fixture ran hair salon at Spitzer site
BOWLING GREEN - Robert H. Sautter, who with his wife ran a beauty salon in the Spitzer Building in downtown Toledo for more than 50 years, died Sunday in Wood County Hospital. He was 90.
Mr. Sautter died of a blood clot resulting from a broken hip he suffered in a fall, said a sister, Geraldine Emmons. He also was receiving treatment for pneumonia, she said.
During his long stint on the Spitzer Building's second floor running The Salon of Beauty with his wife, Evelyn, Mr. Sautter met many of Toledo's movers and shakers, including a young Carty Finkbeiner, Mrs. Emmons said.
"He knew a lot of the people that were downtown," the sister said. "He gave haircuts to a lot of the doctors' wives."
Mr. Sautter loved to travel, and often discussed his trips with his customers. He was most certainly a "people person," Mrs. Emmons said.
But as the 1980s arrived, Mr. Sautter could see the nature of downtown Toledo changing, and when his rent started rising, he decided to retire."Everybody went downtown until the malls came in. That changed a lot," Mrs. Emmons said.
Born in Tontogany, Ohio, Mr. Sautter graduated in 1937 from Washington Township High School, where he excelled in track, discus, javelin, and swimming, and was one of the first local students to go to Buckeye Boys' State.
He then attended Bowling Green State University and the Toledo Academy of Beauty and Barber School before establishing his business.
Mr. Sautter followed in his mother's footsteps as a piano player, Mrs. Emmons said. He began playing at age 3 and, while taking lessons in childhood, was able to play music by ear rather than from sheet music. "He'd just hear a song, and he could play it," the sister said.
He had a particular ear for hymns and gospel music and often played in area churches, as had his mother. On vacation aboard cruise ships, he routinely sought out the ship's piano to play, and Mrs. Emmons said his playing may have earned him an invitation to accompany the Gatlin Brothers on one of those ships.
"They were there, and they asked him to play with them," she said.
Before then, she noted, Mr. Sautter had no idea who the Gatlin Brothers were and he suggested to them that they ought to seek out a television appearance.
Mr. Sautter also went on hunting and fishing trips with his father and other relatives to Ontario and New Brunswick, the former involving remote wilderness cabins accessible only by boat. He once bagged a bear, Mrs. Emmons said, which yielded a pelt he kept for many years and meat his mother cooked when the hunting party returned home.
Mrs. Emmons said her brother was an avid fan of Detroit and Cleveland sports teams and Ohio State. He attended many World Series baseball games in Cincinnati, Detroit, and Cleveland, she said.
Mr. Sautter is survived by his sisters, Geraldine Emmons and Irma Heiser. He was preceded in death by his wife, Evelyn, whom he married in 1942, three brothers, three sisters, a stepson, and a step-grandson.
The body will be in the Peinert Funeral Home, Tontogany, where the family will receive friends from 2 to 6 p.m. today. The funeral will begin at 11 a.m. tomorrow in the mortuary.
Tributes may be made to Calvary United Methodist Church, Tontogany.
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