Robert Elwyn Walkup

“Mayor Bob” was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut on November 14, 1936. He spent most of his early life in Ames, Iowa, where his father, Joseph K. Walkup, was a Professor and Chair of the Iowa State University Industrial Engineering Department from 1942-1975.

As a young man, he excelled at football, basketball and track. He spent his summers working as a railroad “gandy dancer” in Oklahoma, shoveling sludge at the Ames sewer plant, and dredging waterways in Texas.

He received his degree in Industrial Engineering from Iowa State in 1960 and served in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at Fort Ord, California and throughout Europe during the Berlin Wall crisis.

Bob began his nearly 35-year career in the aviation and aerospace industry with Collins Radio Company in 1963. He developed modular manufacturing systems for product design and delivery in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and managed the design and construction of thin film and crystal manufacturing facilities in Newport Beach, California.

In 1971, Bob and his family were relocated by Collins Rockwell to Alice Springs, Australia. Bob was the company’s Site Manager of Pine Gap, a joint operation of the U.S. and Australian governments, until his relocation back to Cedar Rapids in 1974.

In 1981, Bob and his family moved to Farmingdale, New York to become the Senior Vice President of Operations for Fairchild Republic. He was responsible for aircraft manufacturing operations and over 8600 employees. For one of Fairchild’s largest customers, the United States Air Force, Bob oversaw the construction of the A-10 Close Air Support Aircraft, among many other airplanes and avionics systems for military and commercial purposes.

He would ultimately follow many of those A-10s to Tucson in 1985, where he became Materiel Division Director for Hughes Aircraft Company. In addition to his operational and management duties at Hughes, he led the company’s efforts to negotiate agreements with the State of Arizona and the City of Tucson that assisted Hughes’ acquisition of General Dynamics and the hiring and relocation of 6000 employees and their families from California to Tucson. Bob also worked on various community initiatives while at Hughes, including the Pima County School-to-Work Program and other partnerships with the Sunnyside Unified School District and Sunnyside Neighborhood Association.

Bob retired from Hughes in 1997 and soon began a political campaign to replace retiring Tucson Mayor George Miller. Despite having no political experience, Bob was elected by a wide margin in November 1999, and went on to serve three terms as Tucson’s Mayor.

In his twelve years in office, “Mayor Bob” ended Tucson’s “Water Wars” of the 1990s and led the successful and safe delivery of Tucson’s Colorado River water supply to Tucson residents and businesses. He helped unite the community and gain voter approval for the Regional Transportation Authority plan and funding. He annexed over 26 square miles to help ensure sustainable community growth, in addition to annexing Marriott Starr Pass Resort and Raytheon into the City of Tucson. He also began the work that would revitalize downtown Tucson, and he championed the SunLink Streetcar System that now unites Tucson’s historic west side, the University of Arizona, and the neighborhoods and small business districts in between.

As Mayor, Bob especially enjoyed visiting elementary school students and encouraging them to pursue science, technology, engineering, the arts, and math in their lives and careers. He was passionate about working with Pima County and other regional governments on a shared vision of creating, “the highest quality of life and quality of place for all of our people.” And after the tragic shooting of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords and eighteen other Tucsonans on January 8, 2011, Bob developed the “Civility Accords” advocating kindness and mutual respect in political discourse. The Accords were signed by over 350 U.S. Mayors and recognized by President Obama.

Bob’s many hobbies stemmed from his passions for engineering, design, and the arts. He built model airplanes, restored antique cars, and played flamenco guitar. He loved to travel. He loved to teach and inspire young people.

Bob was honored by the dedication of the “Mayor Robert E. Walkup Interchange” at 22nd Street and Kino Boulevard. The project completed work started by Mayor Lew Murphy decades earlier, helped bridge Tucson’s north and south sides, relieved congestion at the worst intersection for traffic delays in the city, and improved safety for cars, buses, cyclists, and pedestrians. Bob would lightly tap his horn as he drove through the intersection, and he’d be honored if you give a quick honk the next time you pass through it, too.

He deeply loved and is survived by his wife, Beth Walkup of Tucson; children from his first marriage, Holly Walkup Carter (Dennis) of Bend, Oregon, and Jonathan Walkup of Tucson; his stepdaughters Stacy Timmons of Kansas City, Missouri, and Shannon Hope of Tucson; and grandchildren, Sterling Walkup of Waco,Texas, Emily Carter of Tucson, Matthew Carter of Bend, Oregon, Skyler Timmons of Kansas City, Missouri and Rebeckah Hathaway of Austin, Texas. Bob was preceded in death by his youngest daughter, Julia Walkup Middleton of Greensboro, North Carolina.

In lieu of flowers, the Walkups encourage donations to the Tucson Girls Chorus, which provides an outstanding choral education program for girls in grades K-12, with additional co-ed programs to serve all of Tucson’s youth: https://tucsongirlschorus.org