Robert Nunnemacher


Robert Nunnemacher was a member of one of Milwaukee's pioneer families of Swiss origin. In the 1890s through the turn of the century, Mr. Nunnemacher was among the twenty most successful and wealthiest businessmen in America, expanding on his father's business empire and joined by the likes of Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller. Robert Nunnemacher is best known for the system of malting drum he developed. It involved a rotating drum and humidified air between a central duct, and other periphery ducts to condition germinating grain.
He was president and secretary of the Kraus Merkel Malting company of Milwaukee, and then went on to be founder and president of the Galland Henning Pneumatic Malting Drum Manufacturing Company of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, known today as Galland Henning Nopak, Inc. Now in its 132nd year of operation, the company remains family-owned with fourth-generation member Heath A. Nunnemacher serving as Chairman of the Board. The company name stemmed from Mr. Nunnemacher's acquisition of the American manufacturing rights to equipment that originated from Nicholas Galland, a Frenchman, and a German named Julius Henning.
He was a member of the board of directors for First National Bank, the Milwaukee Mechanic's Insurance Company, the Prospect Hill Land Company, and board of trustees of the Milwaukee Public Museum. He was also affiliated with the Merchants Exchange Bank and the American Malting Company in the 1890s.
He died in Milwaukee on March 8, 1912.

Mining

Nunnemacher purchased Milwaukee and Superior Mining Company at a sheriff sale which was located in the Gogebic Range.
He was director of Twin Buttes Mining and Smelting located in Twin Buttes, Arizona.

Residences of historical and architectural significance

His Milwaukee residence was located at 2409 N. Wahl Avenue in 1906. It was in a symmetrical Jacobethan style, brick with stone quoins designed by Alexander C. Eschweiler and was added to the NRHP in 2000.
The Nunnemacher Summer Clubhouse was in Pauline's Woods on Pine Lake, which is in Chenequa, Wisconsin.