A native of St. Louis, Bob served in The United States Air Force from 1962 to 1966. He graduated with a B.S. in Business and Economics from Drury University in 1968, and received his MBA from Saint Louis University in 1976. Bob has served on the Board of Trustees of Saint Louis University since 2006.
Bob and Maxine are founding sponsors of Teach For America and of KIPP Charter Schools in St. Louis. In 2006, they funded a new Cardiac Intensive Care Unit at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. They also endowed the Chair of the Dean of Goldfarb School of Nursing and established a professorship in the name of Raymond and Alberta Slavin at Saint Louis University. In 2015, they funded the new Clark-Fox Policy Institute and Forum at the Brown School of Social Work and Public Health at Washington University and the Fox-Clark Civic Scholars cohort at the Gephardt Institute of Civic and Community Engagement.
Bob and Maxine received the 2011 Jane and Whitney Harris Community Service Award given annually to couples in the community who, through their public service, have greatly enhanced the St. Louis region. They were also honored with the 2013 NCCJ Brotherhood/Sisterhood Award, the 2013 One Hundred Black Men Educational Award, the 2014 Saint Louis University Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Leadership Award and the 2015 Better Family Life Civic/Community Award. In 2016, they received the Spirit of Philanthropy Award from the Association of Fundraising Professionals in St. Louis.
Bob is the Founder and Recent Past Chair of the Board of Casa de Salud, a not-for-profit health and wellness center that welcomes new immigrants out of isolation and into the embrace of the community. It opened its doors in January of 2010, and today serves more than 12,000 patient visits annually.
In 2011 Bob served on the Chicago Council on Global Affairs Taskforce on Immigration for the Midwest. In 2012, he founded the St. Louis Regional Taskforce on Immigration and Innovation which launched The St. Louis Mosaic Project in 2013 where he still serves on the steering committee. Its mission is to increase the foreign-born population in the St. Louis region so that by 2020, it has the fastest growing immigrant population of any major metropolitan area in the country and that goal was met four years early in 2016.
Bob is the Founding Chair of the Board of inspireSTL a not-for-profit educational initiative started in 2011. inspireSTL identifies bright, motivated, socio-economically challenged, middle school children in urban underperforming schools, helps them with academic preparation and access to the finest college prep high schools in the region, tutors and mentors them through high school and college with the goal of bringing them back to their communities as transformational leaders. inspireSTL merged with Wyman Center in 2016 where Bob now serves on the Executive Committee of the Board. He also serves on the External Advisory Board of Collegiate School of Medicine and Bio-Science a St. Louis Public School District magnet school.
In 2006 Bob became a founding member of the Gephardt National Council for Civic and Community Engagement at Washington University where he personally mentors both Civic Scholars and Goldman Fellows. He also serves on the Education Committee of the St. Louis Zoo Foundation.
Bob received the inaugural St. Louis Harvard Club Community Service Award in 2010. In 2011, he received the Hispanic Leaders Group Premio Esperanza Award and the St. Louis Award given to “the resident of metropolitan St. Louis who has contributed the most outstanding services for its development or… shall have performed such services as to bring great honor to the community.” In 2012, he received the St. Louis World Trade Center’s Global Ambassador Award and was inducted into the John Cook School of Business at Saint Louis University Smurfit-Stone Entrepreneurial Alumni Hall of Fame. In 2014, he received the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. State Celebration Commission of Missouri Distinguished Humanitarian Award. Bob is the recipient of the 2015 Gerry and Bob Virgil Ethics of Service Award at Washington University, and the Niagara Foundation 2015 Peace and Dialogue “Commitment” Award.