KALAMAZOO-Those keeping track of the educational changes of the nation most likely have heard of Robert Bobb. As the Emergency Financial Manager for Detroit Public Schools, he made recent headlines in his decision to close 50 public schools in Detroit by June 2011; 44 this June alone.
The man making these historic decisions which he says are part of a five-year, $500 million plan to create 21st Century Education in Detroit, has ties to Kalamazoo. It is here that his political career began as the city’s first African American city manager. He held that position for 10 years before leaving in 1984 set on a whirlwind trek across the nation where his political savvy and heart for those he served catapulted him into a position as a sought-after change maker.
His reputation led to him being appointed to his current position with Detroit Public Schools in 2009 by Gov. Jennifer Granholm. The work he did in slimming administrative and financial burdens in the schools, led to an extension in his appointment through March, 2011.
As he reflects on his success, he can’t help but focus on the family and mentors he had at each step who were vital in his success.
IN THE BEGINNING
Bobb, 64, grew up during the Jim Crow Era in the South. In a small town in Louisiana, not far from New Orleans, he was raised by parents and a grandmother. While his dad worked on a nearby sugar cane plantation and his mother worked as a maid, his grandmother would watch the grandchildren in between her own jobs as a maid. Although his mother had the most education of those rearing him (sixth grade) they knew education was the key to change.
The walk, and sometime bus ride, down a dusty plantation road led to the one-room schoolhouse Bobb and his sister attended from first through fifth grades.
“It was a segregated school, complete with a wood burning stove and outhouse. Our teacher, Mr. Thomas, would teach, but the students also taught one another,” Bobb said. “The fifth graders worked with the fourth graders; the fourth graders with the third graders, and so on…and that worked for everybody.”
Bobb would go on to the segregated Willow Street High School in the nearby city of Franklin, La. However, it wasn’t until he graduated from high school and went on attend the historically Black college, of Grambling University, that he would attend school with a white person.
“I was a sophomore at Grambling when Charles Finley, a white student from Yonkers, N.Y., integrated the school. That was the first time in my life I attended school with a white person,” Bobb said. “There was major Civil Rights taking place throughout the south and I think what (Charles) did was the right thing. We were all involved in voter registration drives. We were the followers of what the adults told us to do.”
MOVE TOWARD GOVERNMENT
After college, Bobb landed a job in Hartford, Conn., in an insurance company which was a branch of Aetna Insurance and today is INA. The office, located at 55 Elk St., would be the largest he’d ever seen. He would be a manager in training and was their ‘affirmative action hire,’ as he was blatantly told. Bobb said his mentor at the company, a white senior executive, George Simpson, helped him not only understand the corporate world, but life.
“He taught me to always dress in dark suit, white shirt and black tie. We looked like the Men in Black (movie characters). He helped me understand people. That was a life-defining moment in my life and I don’t think I could have made it without that mentor relationship,” said Bobb.
At the young age of 23, Bobb was on his way. He was promoted to manage a branch of the company in Southfield, Mich. His leadership as a manager led to him being recommended for a position in Kalamazoo to help in the restructuring of the Kalamazoo Water Department.
After a couple of years at the Water Department, he was call to serve as assistant city manager to City Manager Jim Caplinger. Caplinger was leaving for a sabbatical when Bobb was hired, and never returned. In the meantime, Bobb was given an office in the personnel office, and not the City Manager’s office. Bruce Brown, who was active city manager, became Bobb’s supervisor. After his resignation, Bobb was elected by a 4-3 vote as city manager; making him the city’s first African American city manager.
“I loved Kalamazoo, it’s one of the great small towns in America,” Bobb said. “At that time, the Upjohn Company was very active, along with many other philanthropists. United Way never missed its goal, Kalamazoo Valley Community College was expanding, and the K-Wings Hockey team was big at Wings Stadium. It was at Wings that I met the Jackson 5, when they came there in concert. I’ll never forget that,” Bobb said.
Another Kalamazoo memory for Bobb was the tornado of 1981. It was then that Bobb helped save a woman’s life by pulling her into City Hall and into the basement for cover before the devastating tornado destroyed downtown.
PASSING ON WISDOM
In 1984, Bobb left Kalamazoo with a Master of Science in Business from Western Michigan University. He would go on to other cities throughout the country from Santa Ana, Calif., to Washington D.C., to serve, and serve as the first African American city manager in many cases, and have countless awards and recognitions. He was named President of Washington D.C. Board of Education in 2006, has lectured around the world on urban issues, and is the CEO of his own consulting firm, LAPA Group LLC.
Through it all he raised a family of three boys, now ages 22, 35, and 46, with wife, Joyce. He said his career accomplishments could not be made possible without those who mentored him along the way. He has attempted to pass on that knowledge to those who work as his assistant. He is proud to say that 20 young people who have worked for him serve as city managers and other government leaders in such cities as San Antonio and El Paso, Texas, Norfolk, and Richmond Vir.
“They were hard workers, and I gave them the good and bad,” Bobb said. “I mentored them as others mentored me and they knew what it took to do the job.”
Bobb too knows what it takes to do his job. As some Detroit parents and teachers are in an uproar of the massive changes to take place in their schools, he takes it all in stride, and in between a hectic schedule mentors and reads to 5-year-olds.
