Bobby: A Memoir by Robert Lewis Trezise

Mail-Only Memoir Revived: Author tells the tale of Ironwood’s innovation era

TRAVERSE CITY, MICHIGAN—An Upper Peninsula historical memoir is revived as Bobby: The Memoir approaches its first digital and widespread availability. Thirty–five years ago, Robert (Bob) Trezise Sr. wrote the first manuscript, detailing 20th century Ironwood in its economic heyday from the lens of a child in an immigrant family fleeing from war. 

“I sold nearly 1000 mailed copies to friends, family, neighbors, and strangers who all discovered it through word of mouth. For my 90th birthday, my oldest son Bobby Jr., resurrected the old paper book and we worked to re-claim it into electronic form, over several years, until having it ready for publishing submission to Mission Point Press,” Trezise recounted, recalling the struggle to work with a computer rather with a typewriter, despite the joy it brought him to tell the story once again.

A Family in a Book

He emphasizes that this story doesn’t just illustrate the financial growth of the town, but a true industry boom in the mining age.

“Ironwood and the U.P. of Michigan were an economic powerhouse to the state and country in the late 19th and early 20th century—a sophisticated, diverse, and vibrant community of wealth and innovation. It was a place of incredible immigrant families who worked the iron ore mines and built a society together. It was a remarkable era of history,” he shared. “Of course, World War II introduced lifelong heartbreak within my family and in many families and, in a way, signaled the beginning of the end for Ironwood and its people.

“My desire was to bring back to life the amazing Trezise and Eddy family members and other characters of 20th-century Ironwood, who were so alive for me and did so much for a thriving Ironwood,” he continued.

While he is now located near mid-Michigan, this story is more dear to his heart than ever, especially amongst an ever-moving digital landscape.

“Perhaps today we live in somewhat of a disposable society, instant gratification of the here and now dominant, but this book reminds us the value of relationship, family, and a main street community, particularly through the diversity of immigration, which created a society maybe more empathetic and caring, though it certainly also had its terrible conflicts, prejudices, and ignorance. It's important to reflect that, what now looks destitute and unpopulated was once a thriving wonderful place, and if you remember this, you may find a new space for a required strength to re-imagine, to re-build and respect that where there once was a history, there can always have a future,” Trezise reflected. 

A review of the memoir illustrates Trezise’s achievement of telling the rich history of the place, as well as his artistic approach to telling the story of a place that once was. 

Advance Praise

“Michigan’s great writer Jim Harrison wrote, ‘Death steals everything but our stories,’ and Bob Trezise Sr., still thriving at ninety-four, figured that out almost forty years ago when he penned an amazing collection of stories about growing up in Ironwood, Michigan, in the 1930s and 1940s. What was once a mimeographed collection compiled for his family and fellow Upper Peninsula residents has been given a new life in his book, Bobby. The book, with a nod to terrific storytelling, inspired by quotidian experiences coupled with visual acuity, adeptly recognizes we are on the precipice of losing the stories of an entire generation. Trezise’s book fills that void with an elegance of homegrown storytelling. The book will inspire readers to begin writing their own stories.”

—Bill Castanier, literary reviewer for Lansing City Pulse for nearly twenty-five years, interviewing more than twelve hundred authors 

The Author

Robert (Bob) Trezise was born in Ironwood, Michigan, in 1932 and graduated from Luther L Wright High School in 1949. He later graduated with an associate degree from Gogebic Junior College, a bachelor’s in English from Northwestern University, and a master’s degree in English and a PhD in education from Michigan State University (1968). His dissertation was on the subject of gifted and talented children. Bob taught at various public schools for a few years, mainly in the Lansing School District. Bob spent the rest of his career working in the state of Michigan’s Department of Education, retiring in 1989. Bob has had numerous articles published in both professional journals and general magazines.

Bob married his wife, Joan, of sixty-two years, in 1964. They have three children, nine grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. For thirty years, Bob and Joan have owned a family cottage on Torch Lake near Traverse City, while living in Lansing, Michigan. Wherever Bob has lived, he’s been a member of a choral group and has appeared in numerous amateur stage productions. Bob has been a prolific writer including numerous unpublished pieces on a variety of subjects such as a historical look at Jesus’s life and Joan’s life growing up in Sunfield, Michigan. Bob is also an amateur painter and his early paintings of iron ore mines in the UP are displayed in the Ironwood Historical Museum.

The Book

Bobby: A Memoir

Bob Trezise Sr.

70 pages, 6” x 9”, B/W

Biography & Autobiography / Memoirs / Family & Relationships / Life Stages / History / United States / State & Local / Midwest

ISBN: 978-1-968761-60-8, $26.95 (Hardcover)

ISBN: 978-1-968761-61-5, $18.95 (Softcover)

Publication Date: 08/20/2026

Mission Point Press

Copies are available for preorder at Bookshop.org, Amazon, and other online retailers. On its August 20 publication date, it will be available for purchase wherever books are sold. For information or to arrange for signings and events, contact the author at treziseb@comcast.net. 

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