Meet Our New Managing Editor, Bob Schober

I’m very happy to join Whatcom Watch as its new editor. My wife, Rene Laventure, and I moved to Bellingham from Pittsburgh, PA, almost three years ago, and we absolutely love it here. We especially love the clear and fresh air and the gorgeous mountains nearby. One of my goals is to help ensure that future generations will be able to enjoy here what we all are so fortunate to have inherited.

I came to journalism later in life and earned a masters degree in journalism from the University of Illinois at Urbana. I started my career briefly in small newspapers in the western suburbs of Chicago and was soon hired by The Dallas Morning News and moved to first Bryan, Texas, and later to Arlington next door to Ft. Worth. I covered beats including local government, for which I sat through countless and endless city council meetings, and also schools, housing issues, agricultural and other issues. I won several awards for stories and series I wrote about electric power generation.

A few years later I moved to Durango, CO, and The Durango Herald, a small but great journalism paper. I covered water rights issues and oil and gas development in southwestern Colorado. What I most enjoyed about being a newspaper reporter was the occasional intriguing issue that would cross my desk that I could dig into. I ended my journalism career in 2002 but have always missed that excitement and energy. Thus, sticking my toe back in to join this important local news/opinion source.

I currently own my own business. Rene and I love the outdoors and are frequent hikers, cross-country skiers and nature oglers. During the summer months we volunteer as Mountain Stewards with the National Park Service. On occasion we drop our canoes in the several nearby rivers for the paddling we enjoy.

I truly love coffee, so give me a call or drop me an email and we’ll meet over lattes to talk about Whatcom County stuff.