Delavan bodybuilder's legacy embodied by weight contest
(Published Thursday, April 19, 2007 11:44:05 AM CST)
A d v e r t i s e m e n t
By Chris Schultz Gazette staff
Norman "Rocky" Rauch's funeral is Friday.
But his real memorial service will be Saturday, when athletes compete in a bench press and dead lift contest in the Rocky Room at the Delavan Fitness Center, 114 N. 3rd St., Delavan.
Rocky spent months planning the event, and two of his grandsons-Blake Jones, 14, and Larry Jones, 17, both of Denver-will be competing, said Rauch's widow, Trudy.
"Rocky will be there in spirit," Trudy said in a telephone interview Tuesday.
Rauch, 65, of Lake Geneva died April 11 at Clement J. Zablocki Veterans Hospital, Milwaukee. He had been in and out of the hospital since April 1, although doctors couldn't determine his ailment, Trudy said.
On April 10, Rauch suffered cardiac arrest and went into a coma. The next day, with his family around him, he was taken off life support and died, Trudy said.
Rauch was renowned as an Olympic-level weightlifter and bodybuilder. As a youth in Allentown, Pa., he devoted himself to bodybuilding after two bigger boys at a YWCA dance pushed him around, Trudy said.
Rauch joined the U.S. Air Force in the early 60s and served in Vietnam. He was serving as a personal trainer in the Air Force when he was transferred to Madison's Truax Field in the 80s.
Rauch met Trudy in Burlington, and the couple were married June 27, 1985, in Williams Bay.
Rocky told Trudy his Air Force bodybuilding coach introduced him and the rest of the weightlifting team to steroids at a time when no one knew the consequences. The results achieved by athletes using the drug were, at the time, seen as amazing.
Even in his early 60s, Rauch looked robust and powerful. But the steroids ate away from within.
First came cancer-non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 1986. Rauch beat that with a bone marrow transplant in 1990, Trudy said.
Then his joints began to deteriorate. After shoulder replacement surgery in 2003, a staph infection shut down Rauch's kidneys.
Rocky needed to go to the hospital three days a week for dialysis.
Convinced steroids were to blame, Rauch visited high schools in Wisconsin and surrounding states to preach the dangers of abusing steroids and other performance enhancing drugs.
"Those last couple of years it was tough for him," said Bob Miller, a friend and fellow American Legion post member. "It was hard for him to get around."
Rauch was commander of Lake Geneva's American Legion Frank Kresen Post 24 for six years, said Miller, who is post adjutant. Rauch organized Memorial Day observances and a 2003 silent march in Lake Geneva in memory of U.S. servicemen who were POWs and missing in action, Miller said.
Rauch was also commander of the Walworth County Veterans Council in 2004-05.
Memorial services
Funeral services for Norman "Rocky" Rauch will be at 11 a.m. Friday at Trinity Lutheran Church, W775 Geranium Road, Pell Lake.
Visitation will be from 4 to 8 p.m. Thursday at Steinke Funeral Home, 515 Center St., Lake Geneva, and at the church after 10 a.m. Friday.
