William S. Robie (Bill) (April 6 1944 - August 16th 2024)
Bill Robie was a member of the first Leadership Golden class and a very active member in the Golden Community. You can read about him in Golden Today: (https://www.goldentoday.com/bill-robie/)
Bill Robie
A Golden resident since 1964, moved here to attend Colorado School of Mines (CSM). He has a most unusual claim to fame – he has named 27 streets in the Golden area! Bill was in the first Leadership Golden (LG) class (1984-85) and then served on the LG Board for two years. He highly recommends Leadership Golden because participants “learn how Golden works and how to make it work.” After his LG experience, he served on the City Planning Commission for four years and was a co-founder of the Golden Good Government League (3GL), a group that has met and worked to promote ‘good government’ in the city continuously since 1987. He is still an active member of this group. In addition, Bill has been involved with the Colorado Railroad Museum for 25 years, currently serving as a Trustee. Leadership Golden sponsors the artwork for a Golden themed Christmas tree ornament every year, selling them as a fundraiser. Bill is the originator of that idea! Visiting his hometown in Massachusetts one year just as his involvement with LG began, he saw Christmas tree ornaments decorated with scenes of that town’s square. To his amazement, he also saw that those ornaments were labeled “Made in Golden, CO” ! He tracked down the manufacturer and the rest is history as a long standing Golden tradition. So, how did he come to name 27 streets in Golden? In his career as a professional land developer and project manager, Bill worked on the development of many areas we are familiar with today. Areas such as Canyon Point, Mountain Ridge, Fossil Trace Drive, Bear Tooth Ranch, and the Coors Tech Center, to name a few. In that capacity, he chose names for new streets! While a student at CSM, Bill’s studies were interrupted by five years’ military service which included flying helicopters for one year in the Vietnam War and he is now a member of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association. Bill and other Chapter members have pooled personal artifacts and memorabilia from those years and operate a mobile museum. Not surprisingly, Bill advocates that if a person has a passion for anything, they “shouldn’t hesitate to plunge in and take a leadership position.” Clearly, Bill Robie walks the talk.