Roasters Turn Up the Heat on Bob

On Thursday, May 10th our staff, supporters and colleagues came together to commemorate 20 great years of Bob Jenks as the Executive Director of CUB. In an effort to honor his past and toast to the future, special guests were given an opportunity to roast Bob last week at Jam on Hawthorne. Attendees enjoyed a wonderful show full of good laughs and hilarious anecdotes. Some of the highlights included Jill and Macy, Bob’s wife and daughter, talking about Bob through the years and gaining some great laughs, as well as Oregon Public Utility Commissioner Susan Ackerman taking the chance to poke fun at Bob while also complimenting his role in advancing and improving the energy landscape and utility regulation in Oregon. The special event was emceed by CUB’s current board chair Linda Tomassi, Executive Director of Oregon Women Lawyers.

Dave Robertson, the Vice-President of Public Policy for Portland General Electric, really embraced the opportunity to have an open shot at Bob, and his comments were complemented by a presentation that included fictional tweets from Bob as well as hilariously photo-shopped images of Bob. Dave’s remarks ended on a positive and friendly note when he presented Bob with a custom bobble-head of Bob himself.

In addition to Dave Robertson, Macy and Jill, and Susan Ackerman, the line-up of roasters included:

• Laura Etherton – Laura is a health care policy advocate for OSPIRG and has known Bob since before he came to CUB. Her comments included a number of anecdotes from other past colleagues of Bob pre-CUB.
• Kevin Masterson – Kevin currently works at the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). He worked on the initial CUB campaign and served as CUB’s Board Chair from 2003-2006. In addition to the great jokes he provided, he also highlighted Bob’s unique ability to maintain a calm cool and collected voice whether talking about the Blazers or fighting rate increases.
• Rachel Shimshak – Rachel is the Executive Director of the Renewable Northwest Project and has been a key ally for CUB, starting there just a few years after Bob started at CUB.
• Jason Eisdorfer – Jason was recently appointed the Utility Program Director at the Oregon Public Utility Commission. He worked at CUB for nearly 14 years and has countless stories about Bob! He really enjoyed re-surfacing old quotes about the pair working together in the past. For example: “The two are the bearded (and often barefoot) Bob Jenks and his clean-cut cohort Jason Eisdorfer.” -Willamette Week 1998

Bob was given a chance to rebut the remarks and he did so with his usual vigor and quirky sense of humor. The evening concluded with some special remarks from Senator Diane Rosenbaum. She is currently the majority leader in the Oregon State Senate and Bob is one of her constituents. We were grateful to have her honor Bob’s service and CUB’s great work at our event.

Thank you very much to Jam for hosting this great event and providing such delicious appetizers. We look forward to spending the rest of 2012 celebrating Bob’s twenty years! Won’t you join us?

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