{"id":15518,"date":"2015-10-05T10:00:25","date_gmt":"2015-10-05T16:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/?p=15518"},"modified":"2015-12-28T15:14:00","modified_gmt":"2015-12-28T22:14:00","slug":"bob-yates-former-business-leader-attorney-dedicates-time-to-civic-service-in-adopted-hometown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/?p=15518","title":{"rendered":"Bob Yates, former business leader, attorney dedicates time to civic service in \u2018adopted hometown\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Council<\/a>

Council candidate Bob Yates is pictured working at Columbia Cemetery as a volunteer with the Columbia Cemetery Conservation Corps. While the city owns the historic cemetery, there are not enough funds to properly preserve it in honor of those who built Boulder. Yates is among a group that gets together on some Saturday mornings to right headstones and cut back weeds. (Photo courtesy of Bob Yates)<\/p><\/div>\n

Bob Yates typically heads into his home office around 4 a.m. and doesn\u2019t call it a wrap until the sun goes down.<\/p>\n

This is what retirement looks like for the 54-year-old, who, on his 50th birthday, retired from his senior vice president position with Level 3 Communications. Now, he dedicates his time to civic service, volunteering for numerous nonprofits and civic groups in Boulder. He\u2019d like his next civic role to be serving on the Boulder City Council.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so much more satisfying to work for a \u2018thank you\u2019 than a paycheck,\u201d Yates says. \u201cI\u2019ve been afforded the opportunity to do so, but I still consider my service a job\u2014however, it\u2019s not work, it\u2019s a passion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yates recently served as chairman of the Museum of Boulder, and he led the drive to raise $8 million to build a new museum of history and science, which will have also house a children\u2019s museum. The campaign included raising money from donors and, in 2014, passing ballot initiative 2A, a Boulder sales tax that is raising money for safety and cultural projects.The museum, which will be housed in a former Masonic lodge at Broadway and Pine Street, will debut in 2017. It will feature interactive science and technology exhibits, recognizing the city\u2019s leadership in science and the presence of Boulder\u2019s federal labs.<\/p>\n

Yates is also treasurer of the Colorado Chautauqua Association and secretary for the Dairy Center for the Arts. He is the past chairman of the Boulder Parks & Rec Advisory Board and past president of the Boulder History Museum\u2019s Board of Trustees. Yates also has volunteer experience with several groups, including CU\u2019s Conference on World Affairs, the YWCA Reading to End Racism program, the Columbia Cemetery Conservation Corp and the Boulder Greenways Advisory Board.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we all have an obligation to serve each other,\u201d he says. \u201cThere may come a day when I\u2019ll truly retire and travel, but what fulfills me and makes me happy is finding opportunities to serve. Boulder is my adopted home town. I love this city and want it to continue to thrive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former Boulder City Council member Suzy Ageton is endorsing Yates\u2019 campaign and says she\u2019s impressed with how invested Yates is in the Boulder community\u2014including his involvement with the Boulder History Museum and the Colorado Chautauqua Association.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s someone who really does his homework and is always prepared,\u201d says Ageton.<\/p>\n

Ageton also says Yates\u2019 personality and his comfort working with people makes him a good collaborator.<\/p>\n

Yates, a former attorney who was a partner at Fraser Stryker Law Firm, is a part-time law school professor at the University of Denver\u2019s Sturm College of Law. His experience practicing law and working as a business leader, he says, makes him a good fit for council.<\/p>\n

His legal background can help the council navigate legal issues, with the help of the city attorney, whether it\u2019s applying a zoning law or interpreting issues surrounding municipalization, he says. As a business leader, Yates says, he has experience preparing hundreds of budgets.<\/p>\n

Yates moved to Boulder in 2001 after living abroad in London, where he was the president of Level 3 Communications European operations. Yates appreciated the walkable neighborhoods in London, where he could do shopping by foot and would routinely run into neighbors on the street. Yates, wanting to replicate the experience when he and his family moved back to the United States, concluded that Boulder would be the best place to live.<\/p>\n

He lives in north Boulder near 19th Street and Kalmia Avenue, with his wife Katy. They have two sons, John and Will, who are Boulder High School graduates and are both pursuing careers in Brooklyn, New York.<\/p>\n

Yates enjoys walking in Chautauqua, attending performances at the Dairy Center and reading The New York Times in local coffee shops.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can never run out of things to do in Boulder,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s a town with so many art and cultural opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bob Yates typically heads into his home office around 4 a.m. and doesn\u2019t call it a wrap until the sun goes down. This is what retirement looks like for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1211,"featured_media":15520,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1120],"tags":[857,11,1092,990],"class_list":["post-15518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2015-cc-candidates","tag-boulder-history","tag-city-council","tag-election-2015","tag-historic-preservation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1211"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15518"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15522,"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15518\/revisions\/15522"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}