When Bob Batten’s three girls were small, he began to teach them to dance.

They started out standing on Daddy’s feet, and as they got older, progressed to learning the steps of the waltz — one, two, three; one, two, three — gliding around the room, sometimes faltering, sometimes with confidence.

The teaching moments culminated on the eve of each of their wedding days, when Bob led the bride out onto the dance floor.

“We were all Daddy’s girl,” his daughter Wendy Morely said. “And then you finally got to dance with him at your wedding.”

Robert G. Batten, 71, of Mount Pleasant, died Dec. 6, leaving his wife Connie; three daughters, Dawn Navis, Wendy Morey, Denise Spokas; seven grandchildren; his parents Sydney and Margaret Batten; and his sister, Marilyn Stimers.

Batten served his country as a Marine for six years, stationed in Hawaii.

He was born in Detroit, and that’s where he met Connie Simmons. The couple married on Aug. 8, 1959.

About 1962, Connie and Bob moved to Kenosha. With his father, he began Kenosha Metal Products with 10 employees.

Over the years the company grew to employ about 20 people, and the Battens sold it 11 years ago.

“Every morning he would go out and say, ‘Good morning’ to his employees,” Connie recalled. “At the funeral, some of those employees came up and said things like, ‘He gave me a chance.’ They were wonderful employees. Bob had the ability to see good things in people. ”

He took care of his employees like he took care of his family, Wendy said.

His daughters’ safety was always a prime concern. He instructed them in personal safety and defensive arts. None of the girls could get a driver’s license until learning simple vehicle maintenance, including how to change a tire, change the oil and check the coolant.

“He made sure we could be reliant on ourselves, not somebody else,” Wendy said.

It wasn’t always easy living in a home with all those women. Back then he often said he wished he had is own bathroom. But his patience always came through.

Bob loved to fish and hunt, and when he was younger he often went on sporting excursions with friends.

But his grandchildren stole his heart. He would wrestle around on the floor with them when they were small, their squeals of delight echoing through the house.

“His grandchildren were his pride and joy,” Connie said, adding that he was able to make three trips to Disney World with his grandchildren.

Once when he took his oldest grandson Peter deer hunting up north, the teen forgot his school bookbag at the deer camp. Bob drove all the way back to the camp to retrieve it, a total of 15 hours on the road that day.

Bob had a great sense of humor and loved to play jokes. He could be terribly sarcastic, but his jabs never crossed the line into meaness, Wendy said.

In addition to being snowbirds, living the harshest winter months in Arizona or California in retirement, the Battens were able to travel the globe, seeing the wonders of Europe, China, the Panama Canal and Alaska.

Bob had wanted to return to China to see the changes in the Three Gorges Dam area of the country since the building of the controversial dam, Connie said.

Over the years, Batten made a point of making donations to Kenosha area charities, giving back to the community he lived in.

When Bob was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, he fought the disease with all the gusto he had shown in his life. He signed up for an experimental program and thought the treatment had helped, at least for a while.

“He was a strong person, and he thought he would fight it to the end, and he did,” Connie said.