Robert Oaks

Bob Oaks, father, longtime community leader, and beloved neighbor, passed away peacefully on July 10th. He was 77. Bob was Born in Buffalo, New York in December of 1947, the son of Robert F. Sr. and Elizabeth B. Oaks. He was raised Catholic – an experience that would later shape many of his core traits as an activist; the use of food as a conduit for gathering neighbors, his deep belief in the power of community and his passion to help those most in need. His early years found him attending college in Boston – at a time when a young man's attention was more focused on drinking, music and avoiding the draft than earning a degree. But, despite unsubstantiated tales of teenage excess and indiscretion, he was finally cut loose with a bachelor's degree in Anthropology and a very uncertain future. So, like many first-wave baby boomers in the same predicament, he found his way to Woodstock. The muddy music festival unmoored him from his typical Catholic suburban identity and sent him exploring. He went to Colorado and to Florida and to New York City. He drove cabs. He planted utility poles. He went to grad school. He moved furniture. He even raced 10-speeds. His travels eventually landed him in Montana to visit a college friend, and something clicked. In 1980, he met and married Mary Barton, and together they raised their twins, Willy and Maggie. After a short stint living in Seattle, they returned to Missoula and settled into a small home on Phillips Street in the Westside neighborhood. Those first years in Missoula, Bob took on odd jobs while Mary served on the school board. But everything changed the day Montana Rail Link built a fence cutting off the Northside from the rest of Missoula’s neighborhoods. Northside residents, dismayed and angered by the newly restricted access, formed the Northside Neighborhood Association with the goal of securing multiple safe crossings across the tracks. Bob’s path to local activism and community leadership began here, when his neighbors elected him the association’s first president. The work of this group eventually led to the development of the Northside Pedestrian Overpass, but for Oaks, it was just the beginning. During this time, Bob was hired by St. Patrick’s Hospital, where he took control of the Healthy Neighborhoods Program working to invest and improve the North and Westside. Out of this, the North Missoula Community Development Corporation was born—and Bob became its heart and engine, fueled only by the concerns and hopes of his community neighbors. To Bob, no idea was too small or far-fetched. From improving the Northside Park basketball courts to starting a community brewery to foster a place for residents to gather and commiserate. Bob listened – and acted. For over four decades, Bob Oaks worked to transform Missoula’s Northside and Westside hoods through a diverse array of projects. He acted to preserve and maintain historic sites like the Moon-Randolph Homestead. He helped create Missoula Outdoor Cinema and championed the Northside Greenway and the development of the past playground at Westside Park. He developed over 60 permanently affordable homes spread out over five community land trust projects including the preservation of the now cooperatively owned Wolf Avenue Apartments. In the area of commercial development Bob created the Burns Street Center by tackling the renovation of a decrepit warehouse at 1500 Burns Street. Over the past 15 years this building housed the Community Food Co-op (RIP), Real Meals free cooking workshop, a summer drop-in center for kids, The Western Montana Growers Co-op, Front Step CLT (previously NMCDC) and provided the launch pad for The Burns Street Bistro--all ideas born from the wishes of neighbors and fostered into reality by a man who many had started to call the ‘Unofficial Mayor of the Northside’. A moniker - which can’t be overstated - he didn’t care for much. His Alinksy-style approach to community activism guided his fierce belief that residents—not developers or officials—should shape their communities. His advocacy wasn’t always comfortable for city leaders, but he never backed down from a fight. Former Missoula Mayor John Engen once toasted him with the words, “Thank you, Bob Oaks, for being a pain in many of my parts.” He wasn’t exaggerating. His work extended to helping foster other non-profits like Home Resource, M.U.D and the tool library, Zootown Arts Community Center and the Clay Studio. He even spent time cleaning graffiti off the pedestrian overpass he helped get built, always ensuring to use the appropriate paint colors instead of the standard grey. He advocated for the cleanup of the White Pine Sash Superfund site for decades and lived to see it become housing—including over 40 additional permanently affordable units secured through the organization he founded. He helped establish Trust Montana, one of the very few statewide community land trusts in the country. Through his work with Trust Montana, after many years of advocating for the idea that housing and farmland affordability efforts did not need to be at odds with one another, he helped establish Montana’s first permanently affordable farm, in Missoula. For those who knew Bob well, it is intimidating to try to list all the selfless things he did throughout the history of our community. He was the keeper of that history, and he is supposed to always be here to remind us of when we mis-speak or forget something. He offered up his deep well of invaluable knowledge about Missoula, politics, anthropology, history, housing, the civil rights movement, good movies and bad movies, and blues music to anyone who would listen. He was passionate in all endeavors, and that passion translated to the love he had for his children. His enthusiasm for projects of any kind made him the ideal partner when it came to school assignments and helping his kids see their ideas realized. His knowledge made him a storyteller of epic proportion. A favorite and often repeated request was an Inuit myth of how sea creatures came to be. His sense of humor and absence of vanity simultaneously mortified and entertained his children. Excitedly recounting his trike bike configuration allowing him to bring his beloved “Gus” along on rides. Unimpressed, he went on to say: “I’m getting a license plate for it that reads, “Maggies Dad.” A deep appreciation for nature and the outdoors is where his son, an avid fisherman and outdoorsman will continue to find solace. His huge personality and love for his children and grandchildren leaves an unfillable void. He was a compassionate friend who took on many mentees and taught them how to take on hard tasks. He was amazing at arguing and making amends. He was a solid confidant, commiserator, and drinking buddy. He was a generous tipper. He was really good at picking out paint colors. He made the best chili. He was the king of grammar and punctuation, and he would definitely fill this obituary with helpful but unapologetic red-line edits. So, Bob, forgive us one last time for our inability to recall things with as much accuracy and detail as you always did. It’s for these reasons, more so than Bob’s varied accomplishments that give cause for past and present Northside/Westside residents to mourn so loudly. It was the way he nurtured confidence in those who once believed they had nothing worth saying. The way he could draw a jaded barroom bystander into a cause they hadn’t even heard of twenty minutes earlier. Most of all, it was his gift to offer hope in seemingly hopeless situations. Because now that he’s not with us anymore, what we realize we miss most about Bob is how he made everyone he met feel like they were part of something larger. Like they weren’t alone. Bob reveled in having friends and neighbors gather around his kitchen island to talk, laugh, and plot a better future, and if we're unprepared for what challenges and hardships lie ahead of us in both our neighborhoods and the world at large, it's not Bob's fault. He's spent the last 40 years explaining exactly what we need to do to take care of one another. We just needed to listen. And act. Bob was predeceased by his parents, Robert Forest Oaks Sr. and Elizabeth B. Oaks, his sister Lucia Ockerman, and his brother-in-law David Ockerman. He is survived by his children, William “Willy” Oaks (with Sally Gephart) and Margaret “Maggie” Oaks-Ermis (with Ryan Ermis); his grandchildren, Waylon Oaks, Hayes Ermis, and Finn Ermis; his former wife, Mary Barton; his nieces Molly Barton and Ingrid Kumpula and his nephews, Reid, Devin, and Kirk Ockerman.