Bob Oaks Celebration of Life Potluck
Join us to honor the life and legacy of Bob Oaks, Front Step CLT’s founder and longtime executive director, at Moon Randolph Homestead on Sat., September 20. Event from 3-8 pm with program starting at 4 pm.
Bring a dish to share, a chair or blanket to sit on, and a story if you'd like!
Please leave pups at home.
Visit the Moon Randolph Homestead website for site parking and accessibility information.
RSVP here so we can get a sense of how many folks will be there!
Donations in Bob’s memory can be made here.
Remembering Bob Oaks
December 10, 1947 - July 10, 2025
We are heartbroken to share the news of the passing of our friend, mentor, organizational founder, and former Executive Director Bob Oaks. It feels far too soon to lose him, but we want to celebrate the mark he’s made on our Missoula community.
dBob’s determination to make Missoula, especially the Northside neighborhood, a place for all neighbors to thrive leaves a legacy where his impact can be found in almost any corner of town. Around Missoula, neighbors benefit from the projects he championed and advocated for including the Northside Pedestrian Bridge, Westside Park, MUD’s Tool Library, the Moon-Randolph Homestead, the Burns Street Community Center, the cleanup of White Pine Sash, and the development of over 60 Community Land Trust homes.
While he is missed immensely, we are grateful we had the opportunity to celebrate Bob when he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Montana Housing Partnership in 2024, just a year after he retired. In his celebration, current Executive Director Brittany Palmer shared these words from Janet Bush, a longtime Northside neighbor and comrade of Bob’s:
“When we moved here, houses on the Northside were dirt cheap because many homebuyers didn't think it was a desirable neighborhood. But Bob saw the beauty in it — he could envision this cool Northside/Westside area where people were proud of their historic working class homes; where families could afford to live, even without a car; where you knew your neighbors and worked together on gardening or snow shoveling. He could envision a neighborhood nurse; a kid-designed, community-built school playground; a tool library so that home repairs could be affordable for everyone; outdoor movies on hot summer Saturday nights; a coffee shop or brew pub you could walk to; a preserved rural homestead you could hike or drive to. And housing. Affordable, livable housing.
Many of these ideas were inspired by residents themselves, and Bob figured out how to make them happen. If you went to Bob with an idea, he'd work to get it off the ground. He didn't take credit — the improved neighborhood was his reward. It's reassuring to know that Bob is over there, across the street, still raging at the machine on our behalf. We owe him a tremendous debt of gratitude that we will never be able to repay. Our lives are better because Bob made them better.”
We send our deep love to Bob’s family, friends, co-conspirators, and neighbors.
Longtime Missoula community leader Bob Oaks passes away (Missoulian)
