Honoring the life and legacy of J. Robert “Bob” Young

Bob Young was and always will be one of my greatest heroes. I worked with Bob for over 33 years. I admired his style, his grace, his joie de vivre, his panache (his picture should be next to the word in the dictionary), and his extraordinary business acumen. His legacy forever was immortalized by LeRoy Neiman’s painting of Bob he titled, “The Fastest Banker Alive” – a testament to his passion for taking the checkered flag, not only as a banker, but also as a race car driver in his red Ferrari #21. I had a first-row seat as he beat everyone to the punch in the business world – how else to explain starting a $25 million bank in tiny Carbondale, Colorado, and growing it into the Alpine Bank behemoth, with nearly $7 billion in assets and over 40 branches throughout the state? – and as he beat all the other drivers to the finish line in the car-racing circuit! It was a privilege to watch him race and to watch him bank! But, that was Bob – he started small in the tiny hamlet of Spring Hill, Kansas, and he finished big: the figurative equivalent of Mount Olympus in everything he did. Through it all, he remained true to his humble roots, putting a young, nervous broker calling on J Robert Young, the Chairman and CEO of Alpine Bank, immediately at ease with his warmth and humility – and we became close friends in no time. Through the years, we spent hours talking about sports, about racing, and about his beloved Wichita State Shockers. And I think I finally turned him into a fan of the New York Yankees. He teased me mercilessly about my golf clubs – I really did have the ugliest driver ever created – and if I wasn’t riding with him in his Ferrari golf cart, he’d race me in mine, spotting me almost a quarter-mile head start and leaving me behind in a cloud of Ferrari dust. One day, I called him in Ocean Reef while it was raining, and I asked him what he was going to do since he couldn’t play golf. He said he had seen a Rolls Royce at a stoplight so he thought he’d go buy one for himself – as if that’s what everyone did when it was raining and couldn’t play golf 🙂 I loved hearing the Alpine Bank radio spots that he and Michael Chandler created. I mentioned to him that he should take a turn in narrating the spots. His voice was as soothing and grandfatherly as Walter Cronkite’s and inspired the same trust as Cronkite did and as anyone would have in their own grandfather. One day, I was listening to the radio in my car, and the familiar Alpine Bank jingle came on, and I told my wife that we were about to hear from Bob. Sure enough, we did – and it turned out to be a reply to an email I had sent him that he said was from “my friend, Tom.” That caught me by total surprise and put me immediately on Cloud Nine! Again, that was Bob. He had a way of putting everyone with whom he came in contact on Cloud Nine. The world is undeniably a better place thanks to Bob Young. He was charitable before it became a thing, and his philanthropy is legendary – the list is much too long for this space – but it survives him via the J Robert Young Foundation. Several years ago, Bob was going through his files, and he found one of the first letters I sent to him when I was trying to convince him that he should buy bonds from me. I promised him a “second-to-none” experience that he’d never forget. He sent me a copy of the letter and at the bottom of it, he wrote, “You were right. Good show!” “Good Show,” was Bob’s customary way of thanking people for jobs well-done. So, to you, Bob, at the celebration of a life so well-lived, I’ll say, “Good show!” And I’ll miss you.