Former Springs Mayor Bob Isaac dies

Bob Isaac loved his hometown of Colorado Springs.

And during nearly two decades as mayor starting in 1979, a time when he dominated the political landscape with his forceful personality and keen intellect, much of the community returned the favor.

City voters appreciated his years of dedication as an unpaid, volunteer leader. Frugal taxpayers liked his meat-and-potatoes approach touting basic city services and low taxes.

"My goal as mayor," Isaac wrote in an essay on his personal and public life, "has been to serve the community and to see it improve - to see the environment maintained and to see Colorado Springs become a place where people enjoy living and working."

Robert Michael Isaac, the most powerful politician and influential community voice for a generation of Colorado Springs residents, died Friday from complications of pneumonia. He was 80.

"He did not have in mind his self-interest," said Jim Colvin, the retired city attorney who worked with Isaac for years. "His self-interest was the city's interest."

Known to most simply as "Mayor Bob," Isaac was the son of an immigrant father who went on to become a West Point graduate, lawyer, assistant district attorney, judge, civic leader and, finally, the mayor of a city where residents often view government with suspicion.

Isaac, however, had a style, personality and upbringing that bridged the gap between politicians and the public.

As mayor, he advocated no-frills public works projects such as roads, power plants, water delivery systems and, most significantly, a new Colorado Springs Airport that opened in 1994 and whose terminal building was named in his honor.

He influenced city colleagues with his vast knowledge and expertise on local, state and federal issues, which allowed him to dominate City Council meetings, steer votes his way and, on a broader level, win support among state legislators and federal bureaucrats. An accomplished debater, he often used a quick wit and dry humor to appeal to supporters and knock opponents off balance.

Local residents saw Isaac as one of their own. He grew up here, went to local schools and returned after college. City voters elected him as a councilman in 1975, then as mayor four years later. He won reelection four times before he retired in January 1997, with two years left on his last term.

"The man was a man of very strong integrity," said current Colorado Springs Mayor Lionel Rivera, who was Isaac's campaign manager during his re-election campaign in 1991. "A very strong leader. If you looked at the things he accomplished as mayor, he has a couple of things named after him. The airport terminal is an indication of the work and effort he put in to get that thing built."

For all of his ballot-box popularity, Isaac had critics. They accused him of stubbornness, political gamesmanship and, at times, a confrontational manner.

Colorado Springs' form of government calls for nine elected council members to serve as a board of directors, setting policy for a city manager and staff of professional administrators.

Critics complained Isaac transformed the part-time mayor's job into a full-time office and sought to run day-to-day city affairs, even though he was supposed to be only one of the nine equal voices on the council.

"I'm really glad Bob Isaac is our mayor," Dottie Harman, a member of the City's Planning Commission, said of Isaac many years ago, "even though I resent his style."

Isaac was born Jan. 27, 1928. His father, Al, a Lebanese immigrant, came to Colorado Springs in the early 1920s from upper Michigan along with his brother, Mike. They started a small business - Isaac Brothers Jewelers.

"Dad fixed watches, and Uncle Mike fixed clocks," Isaac said of the pair, whom he described as his childhood heroes.

Isaac grew up just off South Nevada Avenue in Ivywild, when Colorado Springs was a city of neighborhoods, not subdivisions.

He attended Ivywild Elementary School, South Junior High (since razed and now the site of the Police Operations Center) and graduated from Colorado Springs - now Palmer - High School in 1945.

After graduating from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and a stint in the infantry, Isaac entered law school at the University of Southern California. He graduated, returned to Colorado Springs in 1962, and entered private practice. Shortly after, his public service began when he was named an assistant city attorney.

In 1965, he became an assistant district attorney for the 4th Judicial District, and then the presiding judge of Colorado Springs' municipal court.

It was during this time that Isaac built a reputation as the favorite son who had embarked on a career that mixed public service and community activism.

In addition to his early work as an attorney and judge, Isaac headed YMCA building efforts, served as president of an organization for disabled children and adults and actively led attempts to build a convention center in the 1970s.

In 1975, he was elected to a four-year term on the City Council. That year, voters made an important change to the city's electoral process.

Up to that point, voters elected the nine-member council, and council members chose the mayor from within their ranks. A change to the City Charter put the mayor's election in the public's hands starting in 1979.

Isaac ran for mayor that year and won handily.

He became a takecharge political leader from the start.

For instance, in the late 1970s, Isaac led the fight to annex the Broadmoor area in southwest Colorado Springs. At the time, residents of the posh neighborhoods enjoyed city services, but weren't paying city taxes.

Eventually, the dispute went to court and the city prevailed over residents who had opposed the annexation. The fight left many southwest side residents embittered toward him for years.

It was the first of many decisions Isaac made for what he felt was the good of the community, regardless of opposition or political repercussions. He opposed annexation of the Banning Lewis Ranch in 1988 because of its massive, 20,000-acre size; argued with council colleagues over who would make the best city manager; and wanted to build a convention center downtown at a time when civic leaders supported a sports arena, which voters overwhelmingly rejected.

"Every time you take a position on principle, people are going to distort motives," Isaac said in a 1984 interview. "If you hear all the input, make your decision and it's what you consider to be a vital decision for the future of your community, you have an obligation to do everything you can to bring it about under the law, and stick with it. And when you do that, you make some enemies. And that's unfortunate."

A fiscally conservative Republican, Isaac usually sought more money for government when it was for key pieces of infrastructure to serve a growing community.

He advocated major road projects, such as the U.S. Highway 24 Bypass on the city's south side, street upgrades around Peterson Air Force Base and an extension of Powers Boulevard near the Colorado Springs Airport. He supported the building of the Ray Nixon Power Plant south of town, as well as the Homestake project that brings water to the Springs via a system of mountain reservoirs and pipelines.

Isaac's signature accomplishment was the Colorado Springs Airport, which opened in October 1994. He led the fight in the early 1980s for the airport at a time when many people wondered why the city needed a bigger facility. He traveled to Washington, D.C., frequently, lobbying the federal government for money and regulatory approvals to build the airport.

City residents supported his vision, backing the project in a pair of public votes.

In 2002, council members named the terminal building for him. The city's downtown municipal courthouse also was named in his honor.

"Greater than any single project that he enabled to materialize was his laserlike focus on what was best for the long-term interest of the community," said Colorado Springs developer Steve Schuck. "He had extraordinary vision and was valiant and courageous in his conviction. His leadership will benefit many more generations than those who happened to be here while he was in office.

But Isaac wasn't just a policy maker. He connected with rank-and-file residents and voters because of us upbringing.

Colvin, the former city attorney, said Isaac's childhood on the city's south side - not the tony North End - made him appreciated by local residents. Isaac enjoyed shooting pool, carousing at the exclusive El Paso Club in downtown Colorado Springs but also enjoyed fishing, played racquetball and cheered on the Denver Broncos, Colorado Springs Sky Sox and other favorite sports teams.

Tall and solidly built, Isaac was married and divorced three times, and was the father of five children. His gravelly voice came from years of smoking and drinking.

"He connected with both sides of town, and I think that's why Bob was in touch with everybody," Colvin said. "He came from everywhere.

When it came to politics, Isaac also made some controversial decisions. In 1980, as a Republican, he endorsed Democrat Gary Hart for the U.S. Senate, which angered his GOP colleagues for years. Yet in 1990, he was asked by many Republicans to challenge incumbent Democratic Gov. Roy Romer, a request Isaac eventually turned down. In the 1980s, he supposedly had opportunities to move to Washington, D.C., to serve in the Reagan administration, but rejected them in favor of remaining mayor and living in the Springs.

His toughest re-election bid in the city came in 1991, when he defeated then-City Councilwoman Mary Ellen McNally and a handful of lesser candidates.

She described him Friday as a brilliant strategist who wanted was best for the city.

Others echoed that sentiment.

"Rather than focus on any specific project or limit his legacy to a particular project, his greatest legacy is his selfless and principled commitment to the community's interest," Schuck said.

"His most important contribution was his obsession and preoccupation with doing what was right in the long term and big picture despite opposition, resistance and personal attacks he would suffer. He was extraordinary in that regard."

Services were pending Friday evening, according to family members.

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0228 or rich.laden@gazette.com

TIMELINE

1928: Robert M. Isaac was born Jan. 27 in Colorado Springs.

1945: Graduated from Colorado Springs High School (now Palmer) after attending Ivywild Elementary and South Junior High.

1946: Enlisted in the Army, then received an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

1951: Earned an engineering degree and was commissioned a second lieutenant.

1951-1957: Army infantry officer, serving in Germany and as a math professor at West Point.

1962: Graduated University of Southern California law school and returned to Colorado Springs.

1965: Assistant district attorney for the 4th Judicial District.

1966-1969: Presiding judge, Municipal Court of Colorado Springs.

1975: Ran for City Council and was elected to a four-year term.

1979: Ran for mayor in the first popular election for the seat and won. Re-elected four times.

1980s: Lobbied federal authorities for funds to build new Colorado Springs Airport.

1988: Voted against annexation of Banning Lewis Ranch, saying it was too big to assimilate at once; retired as senior partner from Isaac, Johnson and Alpern law firm.

1990: Elected president of U.S. Conference of Mayors. Considered, and declined, a run for governor.

1994: The new Colorado Springs Municipal Airport opens.

1996: Announced resignation.

1997: Last day as mayor was Jan. 17.

2002: Airport terminal named after Isaac.

QUOTABLE: WHAT SPRINGS LEADERS SAID ABOUT ‘MAYOR BOB'

"Bob's impact was so significant. He provided leadership and vision for a couple of decades. When we have resources in the future, we can thank him. He always placed the interests of Colorado Springs and the Pikes Peak region first."
BILL HYBL - chairman and chief executive of the El Pomar Foundation

"He was a visionary. He just didn't have visions, but he got them accomplished. Lots of us have visions, but few of us are able to fulfill them. He did. "His greatest contribution was innovation. He always tried new things because he had leadership - in water, building, law. He was innovative. I don't know of anyone else who had that kind of innovative leadership. "We were never enemies. I just loved the guy."
TERRY HARRIS - former El Paso County administrator and chairman of the board of commissioners when Isaac was mayor

"Bob really gave his life and all of his talents to the city. He made personal sacrifices to do that. He was a fair guy who wanted only the best for the city. He was very talented. It is a big loss for the city."
BUD SHEPARD - partner in Village Seven development in northeast Colorado Springs

"He was a man of passion and told us the same. He was passionate about the city and gave up a lot of opportunities to work for the city. He told us that he loved the city and wanted to make a difference, and he did."
LESLIE PFALMER - Isaac's oldest child

"I found that Bob was a straightshooting and honorable guy that, once things were set, he didn't bemoan what had been done and got on with things. I admire the guy."
JIM MARVIN - resident of Upper Skyway and vocal opponent of the annexation that brought his neighborhood, Broadmoor Village and others involuntarily into the city

"He was politically unique - he was several levels above everyone else in terms of perception, commitment, determination and hard work. He was better informed on the critical issues than anyone else. "If you didn't defer to his knowledge, you did so at your own risk."
DAVID SUNDERLAND - former president of Gates Land Co. and former chairman of University of Colorado Board of Regents

"So many things will be his legacy, but probably the most important was the expansion of the airport with the longer runway and new passenger terminal. We crossed swords numerous times, and it was always healthy. We remained friends."
BRUCE SHEPARD - former Colorado Springs City Council member and longtime local developer

"He was very devoted to the city and people of Colorado Springs. A lot of people misconstrued things he did, but it was always for the best of the city."
HARRY HOTH - former owner of Pikes Peak Broadcasting Co. who, as mayor from 1963-67, appointed Isaac as municipal judge