[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Page 2583]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         IN MEMORY OF JIM ROBB

 Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I rise today to honor a great man 
from Colorado, Jim Robb. A memorial celebration was held for him 
earlier this year and I ask for unanimous consent that this letter 
celebrating his life be printed into the Record.
  The letter follows.
                                                 January 23, 2006.
       Dear Friends: I wish I could be with you personally today 
     to honor Jim Robb.
       Colorado lost a remarkable advocate with the death of Jim 
     Robb on February 20, 2005 at age 69. Jim served Mesa County 
     and the Western Slope as an attorney, as a school board 
     member, as a state representative and as a federal magistrate 
     judge. He served us ably and well in all of these capacities, 
     but it is in his work outside of his career, his amazing 
     dedication to doing all he could to make his community a 
     better place that keeps him in our hearts and minds.
       Jim had a vision for his community that is perhaps best 
     exemplified in his work on the Riverfront Trail, he could 
     look at that collection of junkyards and rotting tires and 
     see past it to a time when there would be a beautiful trail 
     along the Colorado River, running from Island Acres east of 
     Palisade to Corn Lake to Connected Lakes to Fruita. He had 
     the quiet ability to bring interested parties together to 
     work on a problem and find a solution without ever taking 
     credit for himself. His vision of a trail along the river 
     where others saw only junkyards has become a reality and the 
     State of Colorado has honored Jim Robb by renaming the 
     Colorado River State Park as the James M. Robb Colorado River 
     State Park.
       Mesa County and Western Colorado are very blessed to have 
     benefited from a man with a vision, a man who knew how to get 
     things done by working quietly with all of the interested 
     groups, a very special man, whose love for the state of 
     Colorado, and Mesa County in particular lives on in the River 
     Front Trail he helped create, in the Old Spanish Trail he 
     worked to have declared a National Historic trail, in the 
     Kids Voting Program he envisioned and nurtured and in the 
     lives of those he left behind, most especially, his family, 
     his loving wife, children and grandchildren who continue his 
     legacy and were the light of his life. Those who were 
     privileged to know him are better people for it and our 
     community is a better community for his energetic proposals 
     for improvement. He was a great leader for the Western Slope 
     and for Colorado. And he was a good friend to me. We are 
     grateful for the life of James Montgomery Robb, and thank his 
     family for sharing him with us.
           Sincerely,
                                                      Ken Salazar,
     U.S. Senator.

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