Robert Lee Shervin
June 15, 1933 — April 28, 2023
Jackson, WY
Robert Lee Shervin came to this valley at his birth on June15, 1933 and left the valley on April 28, 2023. In the years in between he raised his family, built businesses and served his community surrounded by the mountains he loved. Bob was born to Robert J. Shervin aka Floyd Cummings and Margaret Hedrick. Robert J. came to the valley to hide his past. Margaret's father, Charlie, homesteaded near the Triangle X and became one of the first county commissioners. Brother Harold and sister Doris soon joined their older brother Bob. During the war years, the family moved often following available work but Jackson was always home. For some time they operated the Twin Rock Dairy located in Porcupine Creek. Bob and Harold were doing the job of field hands while going to school but one of Bob's favorite childhood memories was riding his favorite horse on Hog Island in those years. In 1949, the dairy closed and Robert J. and Margaret took a job for the winter in 29 Palms, California, leaving Bob and Harold on their own in Jackson at 16 and 15. From this experience came Bob's lifelong motto:
"The first thing you do is take care of yourself so that you aren't a burden to anyone and then, as soon as you are
able, you reach back and help someone who is having a harder time than you are."
Bob fed cows on Mormon Row that historic winter, skiing 10 miles back and forth from town on snow so deep
that he could rest on the cross bars of the telephone poles. They had to dig down through the snow to find the
top of the haystacks.
When spring came, Bob went to work for Joe Budd in Big Piney. Bob took the ranch truck to town and met the
love of his life, Barbara Jane Decker, pumping gas and washing windshields. They were married by Judge Lange
with only his wife Helen as a witness at the Lange's home on Valentine's Day, 1953. They were as poor as a
newlywed couple could possibly be but between the two of them they had enough strong will and grit to
accomplish anything. Barbara said the secret to their long marriage was that there was never a time that they
both wanted a divorce at the same time. Bob's good looks always turned a head or two over the years. He said
he never had eyes for anyone but Barbara, but it was fun when someone else's second look kept Barbara
interested. They tormented and sparred with each other through 66 years of marriage. Bob loved to exasperate
Barbara right down to routinely hiding the last few pieces of every puzzle. He wanted to have the last word and
put in the last piece!
Bob and Barbara wanted a large family and in no short order came Bobby, Darrell, Harold, Scott and Kristy. The
Shervin household was loud, chaotic and perfectly situated at 585 E. Hansen to be regularly overrun by cousins
and a large part of Jackson elementary. Brother Harold's family lived across the street and their life long best
friends, John and Marge Ryan occupied the corner. Hot tempers and short fuses are a genetic predisposition for
Shervin's, so life was not always idyllic. Bob's upbringing did not prepare him for parenthood but the
grandchildren seem to take little notice of Bob's voice rising, so over the years his rougher edges wore
considerably smoother.
Bob, like his mother, showed his love with his actions. When the kids were young he often held three jobs
simultaneously to make ends meet. The job he loved most was running the chair lift even though if he spent the
night in town with his family he would need to climb the ski hill the next morning to get the lift running. Summer
picnics were adventures in the Willys jeep with all the kids riding in the back. The red ford station wagon carted
everyone to the Aspen Drive Inn Theater to every family movie. Even though pricing was by the car load, Bob
always insisted that all the kids hide quietly under blankets in the back while they paid admission. He was no
doubt looking for a moment of peace. Bob always made sure to pick up his nephew and niece, Gary and Debbie
Dugdale, to join the fun. He found time to be a Boy Scout Merit Badge Counsellor and he was a Little League
Umpire for 25 years. When the boys wanted to wrestle, he put together the wrestling club and championed it for
years traveling to every match with son, Scott, and his grandsons. He took great delight in challenging every
referee causing Barbara to threaten to sit on the other side of the arena so she would not be red-carded with him.
Bob supported kids and grandkids in the 4-H program for many years as well and loved to engage in lively bidding
wars at the livestock auction with Barbara urging restraint to no avail. The Senior Center could count on stocking
their freezer every year.
Bob was well known for his business achievements, from leasing the station that originally sat near the current
Dairy Queen site to relocating to the current location on the west side of town. He began his political career
serving on the Board of Town Planning in 1966, heading up the Chamber of Commerce and serving on the Board
of First Wyoming Bank. Then came his years as Mayor from 1981-1987 and the County Commissioner years of
1994-2002. In the meantime, he served on the Teton County Fair board, worked with Rotary and gladly poured
beer for countless events. Bob had a passion for serving the community and keeping it a place where regular
people could live and raise a family. He was particularly proud of the Town Hall, the Clock Tower and his work
with Jackson's sister city, Lienz, Austria.
Through it all, Bob somehow found time to ski Glory Bowl annually with a group of long-standing friends, fish with
John Ryan and Jim Lais, be on the National Ski Patrol, lead the torch light parade and participate in the hill climb in
the spring. He, Barbara and friends snowmobiled every inch of the valley and the National Parks. He was a life
long member of the Elks and he made sure his membership in Rotary was paid up until the very end. Bob enjoyed
people and his friendships most of all, especially time spent with Jerry DeFrance.
Bob's lifelong project was the Senior Center where he committed his time and his resources. He joined the board
at the age of 38. Anyone who saw the photo gallery lining the walls of the station would know that the founders
and seniors of the community were close to his heart. Even at the end of his life, he was working toward new
goals to better the lives of seniors in the community.
Bob was preceded in death by his parents; his beloved wife, Barbara; son, Harold; brother, Harold and his wife,
Claudette Crisp Shervin and their son, Michael; and his grandson Cody. He is survived by his sister, Doris Dugdale
Taylor, his sons Robert V. (Julie), Darrell (Kathy), Scott (Lettie), daughter-in-love, Mary Smith (Eddie), and daughter
Kristy, his grandchildren: Katie (Kent), Courtney, Levi, Haley, Jay (Bliss), A.J. (Megan), Dan (Jenny), Mitch (Sarah),
Mandy and numerous great-grandchildren, his nephews, Dan (Laura) Shervin and Gary (Ginina) Dugdale and his
niece Deb (Dugdale) King. He will be missed by Cummings family as well. Bob valued his Cummings family
heritage, treasured his Cummings family and was proud to be a life member of the Isaac Cummings Family
Association.
In lieu of flowers, please make memorial contributions to the Senior Center of Jackson Hole.
Memorial Services will be held on Friday, May 12, 2023 at the Fairgrounds Arena at 3:00 p.m.
—————————————————————————
Shervin, a Jackson stalwart, dies at 89
Businessman and public servant championed the elderly, common sense, getting stuff done.
Published in the Jackson Hole News & Guide - Jackson Wyoming, Teton County, Wyoming
May 3, 2023
When Bob Shervin was a boy he milked cows and cut hay on his dad's 80 acres in East Jackson.
Later he ran a gas station and auto shop, and with his wife, Barbara, raised a family in a town that's been mostly replaced by an entirely different community. He straddled the early days of ranching and road-trip vacationers that led to the real estate mecca and international tourism destination of today.
Shervin was known to lament the changes from neighborly small town to don't-even-know-the-neighbors tourism hot spot. But he also helped guide and build the changes over years of public service.
When Bob Shervin died Friday at age 89 his resume included years as Jackson mayor and Teton County commissioner, elected as a commonsense working guy who promised to get mundane but important things done and who thought the government should stay out of people's hair and pay its bills as it went.
He said he wanted to serve, told people that "anything you can do for other people is what makes the community work."
His niece, Deb King, said "Uncle Bob's" view was always "take care of yourself so you're not a burden and then you can turn around and help someone else."
During his time the family dairy farm was replaced first by the modest homes of locals and now by the increasingly fancy second homes of wealthy part-timers. But decades later adjacent land became the Senior Center of Jackson Hole, his favorite project and the one people give credit to Shervin as the man who made it happen.
"My world has been finishing up the Senior Center," he said at a 1997 gathering at which he was named the chamber of commerce's Citizen of the Year. "I think that our senior citizens group is probably neglected more than anyone else in our community. Anything I can do for them is worthwhile."
"I saw him there for over 20 years. I saw him almost every day, especially when we were building," said Connie Owen, who ran the center for many years. "He was always there. We didn't have a construction manager — he just tied it together."
Shervin was born in Jackson on June 15, 1933. His grandparents homesteaded land near the Triangle X Ranch after his granddad Charles Hedrick was "chewed up by a grizzly bear in Colorado" when he trapped its yearling offspring and momma came to the rescue. The grandfather, 18 when he arrived in the Hole, paid $50 in 1905 for 4 acres of what's now downtown Jackson, including the Town Square, and resold it five years later for $75.
Young Bob didn't have it easy. He was expected to labor on the ranch, and when he was 16 his parents decided to move away, and he stayed to support himself and his 14-year-old brother, Harold.
As a side job that first winter without his folks he fed cattle on Mormon Row, 10 miles from Jackson, skiing there each day. His niece King said he told her that in the famous winter of 1949 the snow was so deep that he could ski up to power poles and take a rest leaning on the cross bars. He'd tell of digging down into the snow to reach the top of the haystacks.
"He was working a man's job when he was 10 years old and was on his own when he was 16," King said.
Shervin graduated from Jackson-Wilson High School. Years later, when political opponents listed what they hoped were impressive academic resumes in candidate questionnaires, Shervin's said, "Education: High school." Rather than pointing to his schooling he campaigned instead as a lifelong local, an "honest and successful businessman" and a family man who brought "experience, common sense, responsibility" to his work.
As a young man Shervin worked in the 1950s for a gas station on North Cache, near today's Dairy Queen. He bought the business in 1969, but when he lost the lease he did business on what's now Gregory Lane, then found the place on South Highway 89 where he built Shervin's Independent Oil and Service Center.
In 1981 he paid $100,000 for the acre where the gas station and auto shop now sits, and about a year later spent $150,000 for the adjacent half-acre parcel, where he built a 20-unit apartment building in 2004. Maple Way didn't exist at the time, so Shervin built the first short stretch of the road to help his business.
When he started at the location it "was pretty much outside of town," he said in 2017. "When I bought that land everybody didn't think I was going to make it. Then the town came out and surrounded me."
Over the years the business "raised a lot of families in Jackson, had quite the payroll and paid a lot of sales and property taxes to the town," Shervin said.
But while he had a business to run and a young family, Shervin was drawn to local government. He served 12 years starting in 1969 on the town Planning Commission, eight years as chairman. He was mayor of Jackson from 1981 to 1987, before there was a professional town manager and the mayor actually ran things. In 1994 he was elected to the first of two terms on the Teton County Board of County Commissioners.
Shervin, even then, represented the old population of Jackson, those with roots in the settlement of the area. And while he wasn't strictly anti-growth, and supported such programs as the controversial lodging tax, he often found himself defending what he saw as common sense conservatism in the face of a lot of liberal foolishness. One person called him "a redneck Republican, bless his heart."
He always defended private property rights and often resisted government efforts to control or limit, to impose programs that were presented as the new, smart way of doing things.
"I think that our local ranchers and local property owners are capable of doing their own business with their lands," he said. "I think that private property is very important to the economy of our valley."
He summed it up another time: "I don't believe in taking anything away from anybody."
He told King once that he thought government's job was to provide "protection and infrastructure." After that, he said, government should "leave the people alone to live their lives."
Bob Shervin
Bob Shervin
HANNAH HARDAWAY / COURTESY PHOTO
It wasn't just philosophical; Shervin had his own run-ins with local government. In 1994 he battled town planners over a landscaping requirement at the gas station that he said made no sense. And he didn't like the way he was treated by town employees.
"With what we've got in there now, there is no sense in talking to them," Shervin said of his Town Hall opponents. "You can't work with them. When you're dealing with a bunch of jerks, what do you get?"
He had a running fight with proponents of the town and county's bike and pedestrian path system, then in its starting stage. Though Shervin acknowledged a few cyclists might enjoy the system, and a handful might even bike to work, he wasn't buying the campaign by proponents that the multimillion-dollar investment would become an important part of local transportation or reduce motor vehicle traffic.
When pathway efforts were praised in a newspaper story, Shervin wrote back that he was "especially tired of the Jackson Hole News giving this much publicity to an issue that isn't considered by everyone to be a problem big enough to get more news coverage than other subjects more important to this community. There are some real issues that need honest reporting."
Shervin said of the town-county bus system, another favorite of progressives, that if there was really demand then "private enterprise should take care of it."
Debate about including stringent protection of wildlife in the county master plan prompted Shervin to say that issue wasn't first on his list: "I think we need to take care of people," he said, "and the animals will take care of themselves."
When the Albertsons supermarket chain battled through more than a year of planning debates before building at the "Y" intersection. Shervin sympathized: "How many times have those people jumped through hoops that've been hog manure?" he asked.
During his first run for mayor he vowed to lift the government out of debt, and he did. When he left office there was a $2 million surplus. During his time in office the town built the Town Hall still used today.
•
His love, though, was always the Senior Center. He campaigned for it, convinced the county to sell the land — an old dump — for a dollar, raised money and once gave $25,000, and more other times. He was on the board starting in 1987, and the current building was completed in 1996.
"Always and forever he had a heart for the older members of the community," King said.
Former Senior Center Director Owen said Shervin wasn't shy about using his clout to help the operation.
"After we moved in, there was no money left. ... but it was paid for," Owen recalled. "Then the town came and said, 'You need a retaining wall on the back side,' and we couldn't raise any more money, so Bob said to the town, "If you want us to have a retaining wall you can pay for it,' and sure enough the town of Jackson paid for it.
"If Bob had his mind set on something, it was going to get done," she said.
—————————————————————————
Some more Bob Shervin
Here's a few views of Bob Shervin:
• When Shervin was a young fellow he was working for a rancher when he jumped off a hay wagon, stuck his foot in a gopher hole and broke his leg. He didn't want to let his employer down so he went on working, hobbled as he was. At the end of the week he was in the local rodeo and the horse ended any thought of letting the injury heal itself: Shervin's day ended with the original break elevated to compound fracture. "He went bronc riding with a broken femur," niece Deb King said. "He didn't just talk tough, he talked tough because he was tough."
• When Bob was in high school there was a town cop who used to park at a corner of Town Square for a nap. Bob and some friends snuck up on the dozing lawman one day and strung a cable from his rear axle to a power pole. Then they drove past, honking and yelling. The police pursuit was only about 10 feet long.
• During a heated meeting about whether the county should spray the insecticide Malathion to suppress the area's annual mosquito tsunami, Shervin acknowledged the trepidation about the chemical but added "I won't rule it out because I've spent time in this country when you couldn't even breathe because of the mosquitos."
• After years in public office, when Shervin was deciding on his last run for commissioner his wife Barbara tried to dissuade him, having had enough. But when she saw him leaning toward a final campaign, she said she'd do her part, but with limits: "I'm not going to any dinners, I'm not wearing a dress, I'm not taking phone messages," she said. And she didn't. Shervin ran and won.
• Bob and Barbara met when she was still in high school and was working at a gas station in Big Piney. One day she washed the windshield of a ranch hand who turned out to be Bob Shervin. They married in February 1953. She worked until 1999 for her husband's gas and auto shop business pumping gas and keeping the books. Her 2018 obituary said she "drew the line at tire repairs."
• Bob Shervin liked beer, and when newly married took a bartending job in Big Piney. When there was a fight one night he jumped over the bar with a baseball bat in hand, then came around the next day to be told he'd be stabbed. That discouraged him from a bartending career, though afterwards he always liked to serve the brew at fundraising events: "He loved being the guy who poured the beer," King said.
June 15, 1933 — April 28, 2023
Jackson, WY
Robert Lee Shervin came to this valley at his birth on June15, 1933 and left the valley on April 28, 2023. In the years in between he raised his family, built businesses and served his community surrounded by the mountains he loved. Bob was born to Robert J. Shervin aka Floyd Cummings and Margaret Hedrick. Robert J. came to the valley to hide his past. Margaret's father, Charlie, homesteaded near the Triangle X and became one of the first county commissioners. Brother Harold and sister Doris soon joined their older brother Bob. During the war years, the family moved often following available work but Jackson was always home. For some time they operated the Twin Rock Dairy located in Porcupine Creek. Bob and Harold were doing the job of field hands while going to school but one of Bob's favorite childhood memories was riding his favorite horse on Hog Island in those years. In 1949, the dairy closed and Robert J. and Margaret took a job for the winter in 29 Palms, California, leaving Bob and Harold on their own in Jackson at 16 and 15. From this experience came Bob's lifelong motto:
"The first thing you do is take care of yourself so that you aren't a burden to anyone and then, as soon as you are
able, you reach back and help someone who is having a harder time than you are."
Bob fed cows on Mormon Row that historic winter, skiing 10 miles back and forth from town on snow so deep
that he could rest on the cross bars of the telephone poles. They had to dig down through the snow to find the
top of the haystacks.
When spring came, Bob went to work for Joe Budd in Big Piney. Bob took the ranch truck to town and met the
love of his life, Barbara Jane Decker, pumping gas and washing windshields. They were married by Judge Lange
with only his wife Helen as a witness at the Lange's home on Valentine's Day, 1953. They were as poor as a
newlywed couple could possibly be but between the two of them they had enough strong will and grit to
accomplish anything. Barbara said the secret to their long marriage was that there was never a time that they
both wanted a divorce at the same time. Bob's good looks always turned a head or two over the years. He said
he never had eyes for anyone but Barbara, but it was fun when someone else's second look kept Barbara
interested. They tormented and sparred with each other through 66 years of marriage. Bob loved to exasperate
Barbara right down to routinely hiding the last few pieces of every puzzle. He wanted to have the last word and
put in the last piece!
Bob and Barbara wanted a large family and in no short order came Bobby, Darrell, Harold, Scott and Kristy. The
Shervin household was loud, chaotic and perfectly situated at 585 E. Hansen to be regularly overrun by cousins
and a large part of Jackson elementary. Brother Harold's family lived across the street and their life long best
friends, John and Marge Ryan occupied the corner. Hot tempers and short fuses are a genetic predisposition for
Shervin's, so life was not always idyllic. Bob's upbringing did not prepare him for parenthood but the
grandchildren seem to take little notice of Bob's voice rising, so over the years his rougher edges wore
considerably smoother.
Bob, like his mother, showed his love with his actions. When the kids were young he often held three jobs
simultaneously to make ends meet. The job he loved most was running the chair lift even though if he spent the
night in town with his family he would need to climb the ski hill the next morning to get the lift running. Summer
picnics were adventures in the Willys jeep with all the kids riding in the back. The red ford station wagon carted
everyone to the Aspen Drive Inn Theater to every family movie. Even though pricing was by the car load, Bob
always insisted that all the kids hide quietly under blankets in the back while they paid admission. He was no
doubt looking for a moment of peace. Bob always made sure to pick up his nephew and niece, Gary and Debbie
Dugdale, to join the fun. He found time to be a Boy Scout Merit Badge Counsellor and he was a Little League
Umpire for 25 years. When the boys wanted to wrestle, he put together the wrestling club and championed it for
years traveling to every match with son, Scott, and his grandsons. He took great delight in challenging every
referee causing Barbara to threaten to sit on the other side of the arena so she would not be red-carded with him.
Bob supported kids and grandkids in the 4-H program for many years as well and loved to engage in lively bidding
wars at the livestock auction with Barbara urging restraint to no avail. The Senior Center could count on stocking
their freezer every year.
Bob was well known for his business achievements, from leasing the station that originally sat near the current
Dairy Queen site to relocating to the current location on the west side of town. He began his political career
serving on the Board of Town Planning in 1966, heading up the Chamber of Commerce and serving on the Board
of First Wyoming Bank. Then came his years as Mayor from 1981-1987 and the County Commissioner years of
1994-2002. In the meantime, he served on the Teton County Fair board, worked with Rotary and gladly poured
beer for countless events. Bob had a passion for serving the community and keeping it a place where regular
people could live and raise a family. He was particularly proud of the Town Hall, the Clock Tower and his work
with Jackson's sister city, Lienz, Austria.
Through it all, Bob somehow found time to ski Glory Bowl annually with a group of long-standing friends, fish with
John Ryan and Jim Lais, be on the National Ski Patrol, lead the torch light parade and participate in the hill climb in
the spring. He, Barbara and friends snowmobiled every inch of the valley and the National Parks. He was a life
long member of the Elks and he made sure his membership in Rotary was paid up until the very end. Bob enjoyed
people and his friendships most of all, especially time spent with Jerry DeFrance.
Bob's lifelong project was the Senior Center where he committed his time and his resources. He joined the board
at the age of 38. Anyone who saw the photo gallery lining the walls of the station would know that the founders
and seniors of the community were close to his heart. Even at the end of his life, he was working toward new
goals to better the lives of seniors in the community.
Bob was preceded in death by his parents; his beloved wife, Barbara; son, Harold; brother, Harold and his wife,
Claudette Crisp Shervin and their son, Michael; and his grandson Cody. He is survived by his sister, Doris Dugdale
Taylor, his sons Robert V. (Julie), Darrell (Kathy), Scott (Lettie), daughter-in-love, Mary Smith (Eddie), and daughter
Kristy, his grandchildren: Katie (Kent), Courtney, Levi, Haley, Jay (Bliss), A.J. (Megan), Dan (Jenny), Mitch (Sarah),
Mandy and numerous great-grandchildren, his nephews, Dan (Laura) Shervin and Gary (Ginina) Dugdale and his
niece Deb (Dugdale) King. He will be missed by Cummings family as well. Bob valued his Cummings family
heritage, treasured his Cummings family and was proud to be a life member of the Isaac Cummings Family
Association.
In lieu of flowers, please make memorial contributions to the Senior Center of Jackson Hole.
Memorial Services will be held on Friday, May 12, 2023 at the Fairgrounds Arena at 3:00 p.m.
—————————————————————————
Shervin, a Jackson stalwart, dies at 89
Businessman and public servant championed the elderly, common sense, getting stuff done.
Published in the Jackson Hole News & Guide - Jackson Wyoming, Teton County, Wyoming
May 3, 2023
When Bob Shervin was a boy he milked cows and cut hay on his dad's 80 acres in East Jackson.
Later he ran a gas station and auto shop, and with his wife, Barbara, raised a family in a town that's been mostly replaced by an entirely different community. He straddled the early days of ranching and road-trip vacationers that led to the real estate mecca and international tourism destination of today.
Shervin was known to lament the changes from neighborly small town to don't-even-know-the-neighbors tourism hot spot. But he also helped guide and build the changes over years of public service.
When Bob Shervin died Friday at age 89 his resume included years as Jackson mayor and Teton County commissioner, elected as a commonsense working guy who promised to get mundane but important things done and who thought the government should stay out of people's hair and pay its bills as it went.
He said he wanted to serve, told people that "anything you can do for other people is what makes the community work."
His niece, Deb King, said "Uncle Bob's" view was always "take care of yourself so you're not a burden and then you can turn around and help someone else."
During his time the family dairy farm was replaced first by the modest homes of locals and now by the increasingly fancy second homes of wealthy part-timers. But decades later adjacent land became the Senior Center of Jackson Hole, his favorite project and the one people give credit to Shervin as the man who made it happen.
"My world has been finishing up the Senior Center," he said at a 1997 gathering at which he was named the chamber of commerce's Citizen of the Year. "I think that our senior citizens group is probably neglected more than anyone else in our community. Anything I can do for them is worthwhile."
"I saw him there for over 20 years. I saw him almost every day, especially when we were building," said Connie Owen, who ran the center for many years. "He was always there. We didn't have a construction manager — he just tied it together."
Shervin was born in Jackson on June 15, 1933. His grandparents homesteaded land near the Triangle X Ranch after his granddad Charles Hedrick was "chewed up by a grizzly bear in Colorado" when he trapped its yearling offspring and momma came to the rescue. The grandfather, 18 when he arrived in the Hole, paid $50 in 1905 for 4 acres of what's now downtown Jackson, including the Town Square, and resold it five years later for $75.
Young Bob didn't have it easy. He was expected to labor on the ranch, and when he was 16 his parents decided to move away, and he stayed to support himself and his 14-year-old brother, Harold.
As a side job that first winter without his folks he fed cattle on Mormon Row, 10 miles from Jackson, skiing there each day. His niece King said he told her that in the famous winter of 1949 the snow was so deep that he could ski up to power poles and take a rest leaning on the cross bars. He'd tell of digging down into the snow to reach the top of the haystacks.
"He was working a man's job when he was 10 years old and was on his own when he was 16," King said.
Shervin graduated from Jackson-Wilson High School. Years later, when political opponents listed what they hoped were impressive academic resumes in candidate questionnaires, Shervin's said, "Education: High school." Rather than pointing to his schooling he campaigned instead as a lifelong local, an "honest and successful businessman" and a family man who brought "experience, common sense, responsibility" to his work.
As a young man Shervin worked in the 1950s for a gas station on North Cache, near today's Dairy Queen. He bought the business in 1969, but when he lost the lease he did business on what's now Gregory Lane, then found the place on South Highway 89 where he built Shervin's Independent Oil and Service Center.
In 1981 he paid $100,000 for the acre where the gas station and auto shop now sits, and about a year later spent $150,000 for the adjacent half-acre parcel, where he built a 20-unit apartment building in 2004. Maple Way didn't exist at the time, so Shervin built the first short stretch of the road to help his business.
When he started at the location it "was pretty much outside of town," he said in 2017. "When I bought that land everybody didn't think I was going to make it. Then the town came out and surrounded me."
Over the years the business "raised a lot of families in Jackson, had quite the payroll and paid a lot of sales and property taxes to the town," Shervin said.
But while he had a business to run and a young family, Shervin was drawn to local government. He served 12 years starting in 1969 on the town Planning Commission, eight years as chairman. He was mayor of Jackson from 1981 to 1987, before there was a professional town manager and the mayor actually ran things. In 1994 he was elected to the first of two terms on the Teton County Board of County Commissioners.
Shervin, even then, represented the old population of Jackson, those with roots in the settlement of the area. And while he wasn't strictly anti-growth, and supported such programs as the controversial lodging tax, he often found himself defending what he saw as common sense conservatism in the face of a lot of liberal foolishness. One person called him "a redneck Republican, bless his heart."
He always defended private property rights and often resisted government efforts to control or limit, to impose programs that were presented as the new, smart way of doing things.
"I think that our local ranchers and local property owners are capable of doing their own business with their lands," he said. "I think that private property is very important to the economy of our valley."
He summed it up another time: "I don't believe in taking anything away from anybody."
He told King once that he thought government's job was to provide "protection and infrastructure." After that, he said, government should "leave the people alone to live their lives."
Bob Shervin
Bob Shervin
HANNAH HARDAWAY / COURTESY PHOTO
It wasn't just philosophical; Shervin had his own run-ins with local government. In 1994 he battled town planners over a landscaping requirement at the gas station that he said made no sense. And he didn't like the way he was treated by town employees.
"With what we've got in there now, there is no sense in talking to them," Shervin said of his Town Hall opponents. "You can't work with them. When you're dealing with a bunch of jerks, what do you get?"
He had a running fight with proponents of the town and county's bike and pedestrian path system, then in its starting stage. Though Shervin acknowledged a few cyclists might enjoy the system, and a handful might even bike to work, he wasn't buying the campaign by proponents that the multimillion-dollar investment would become an important part of local transportation or reduce motor vehicle traffic.
When pathway efforts were praised in a newspaper story, Shervin wrote back that he was "especially tired of the Jackson Hole News giving this much publicity to an issue that isn't considered by everyone to be a problem big enough to get more news coverage than other subjects more important to this community. There are some real issues that need honest reporting."
Shervin said of the town-county bus system, another favorite of progressives, that if there was really demand then "private enterprise should take care of it."
Debate about including stringent protection of wildlife in the county master plan prompted Shervin to say that issue wasn't first on his list: "I think we need to take care of people," he said, "and the animals will take care of themselves."
When the Albertsons supermarket chain battled through more than a year of planning debates before building at the "Y" intersection. Shervin sympathized: "How many times have those people jumped through hoops that've been hog manure?" he asked.
During his first run for mayor he vowed to lift the government out of debt, and he did. When he left office there was a $2 million surplus. During his time in office the town built the Town Hall still used today.
•
His love, though, was always the Senior Center. He campaigned for it, convinced the county to sell the land — an old dump — for a dollar, raised money and once gave $25,000, and more other times. He was on the board starting in 1987, and the current building was completed in 1996.
"Always and forever he had a heart for the older members of the community," King said.
Former Senior Center Director Owen said Shervin wasn't shy about using his clout to help the operation.
"After we moved in, there was no money left. ... but it was paid for," Owen recalled. "Then the town came and said, 'You need a retaining wall on the back side,' and we couldn't raise any more money, so Bob said to the town, "If you want us to have a retaining wall you can pay for it,' and sure enough the town of Jackson paid for it.
"If Bob had his mind set on something, it was going to get done," she said.
—————————————————————————
Some more Bob Shervin
Here's a few views of Bob Shervin:
• When Shervin was a young fellow he was working for a rancher when he jumped off a hay wagon, stuck his foot in a gopher hole and broke his leg. He didn't want to let his employer down so he went on working, hobbled as he was. At the end of the week he was in the local rodeo and the horse ended any thought of letting the injury heal itself: Shervin's day ended with the original break elevated to compound fracture. "He went bronc riding with a broken femur," niece Deb King said. "He didn't just talk tough, he talked tough because he was tough."
• When Bob was in high school there was a town cop who used to park at a corner of Town Square for a nap. Bob and some friends snuck up on the dozing lawman one day and strung a cable from his rear axle to a power pole. Then they drove past, honking and yelling. The police pursuit was only about 10 feet long.
• During a heated meeting about whether the county should spray the insecticide Malathion to suppress the area's annual mosquito tsunami, Shervin acknowledged the trepidation about the chemical but added "I won't rule it out because I've spent time in this country when you couldn't even breathe because of the mosquitos."
• After years in public office, when Shervin was deciding on his last run for commissioner his wife Barbara tried to dissuade him, having had enough. But when she saw him leaning toward a final campaign, she said she'd do her part, but with limits: "I'm not going to any dinners, I'm not wearing a dress, I'm not taking phone messages," she said. And she didn't. Shervin ran and won.
• Bob and Barbara met when she was still in high school and was working at a gas station in Big Piney. One day she washed the windshield of a ranch hand who turned out to be Bob Shervin. They married in February 1953. She worked until 1999 for her husband's gas and auto shop business pumping gas and keeping the books. Her 2018 obituary said she "drew the line at tire repairs."
• Bob Shervin liked beer, and when newly married took a bartending job in Big Piney. When there was a fight one night he jumped over the bar with a baseball bat in hand, then came around the next day to be told he'd be stabbed. That discouraged him from a bartending career, though afterwards he always liked to serve the brew at fundraising events: "He loved being the guy who poured the beer," King said.
Robert Lee Shervin
June 15, 1933 — April 28, 2023
Jackson, WY
Robert Lee Shervin came to this valley at his birth on June15, 1933 and left the valley on April 28, 2023. In the years in between he raised his family, built businesses and served his community surrounded by the mountains he loved. Bob was born to Robert J. Shervin aka Floyd Cummings and Margaret Hedrick. Robert J. came to the valley to hide his past. Margaret's father, Charlie, homesteaded near the Triangle X and became one of the first county commissioners. Brother Harold and sister Doris soon joined their older brother Bob. During the war years, the family moved often following available work but Jackson was always home. For some time they operated the Twin Rock Dairy located in Porcupine Creek. Bob and Harold were doing the job of field hands while going to school but one of Bob's favorite childhood memories was riding his favorite horse on Hog Island in those years. In 1949, the dairy closed and Robert J. and Margaret took a job for the winter in 29 Palms, California, leaving Bob and Harold on their own in Jackson at 16 and 15. From this experience came Bob's lifelong motto:
"The first thing you do is take care of yourself so that you aren't a burden to anyone and then, as soon as you are
able, you reach back and help someone who is having a harder time than you are."
Bob fed cows on Mormon Row that historic winter, skiing 10 miles back and forth from town on snow so deep
that he could rest on the cross bars of the telephone poles. They had to dig down through the snow to find the
top of the haystacks.
When spring came, Bob went to work for Joe Budd in Big Piney. Bob took the ranch truck to town and met the
love of his life, Barbara Jane Decker, pumping gas and washing windshields. They were married by Judge Lange
with only his wife Helen as a witness at the Lange's home on Valentine's Day, 1953. They were as poor as a
newlywed couple could possibly be but between the two of them they had enough strong will and grit to
accomplish anything. Barbara said the secret to their long marriage was that there was never a time that they
both wanted a divorce at the same time. Bob's good looks always turned a head or two over the years. He said
he never had eyes for anyone but Barbara, but it was fun when someone else's second look kept Barbara
interested. They tormented and sparred with each other through 66 years of marriage. Bob loved to exasperate
Barbara right down to routinely hiding the last few pieces of every puzzle. He wanted to have the last word and
put in the last piece!
Bob and Barbara wanted a large family and in no short order came Bobby, Darrell, Harold, Scott and Kristy. The
Shervin household was loud, chaotic and perfectly situated at 585 E. Hansen to be regularly overrun by cousins
and a large part of Jackson elementary. Brother Harold's family lived across the street and their life long best
friends, John and Marge Ryan occupied the corner. Hot tempers and short fuses are a genetic predisposition for
Shervin's, so life was not always idyllic. Bob's upbringing did not prepare him for parenthood but the
grandchildren seem to take little notice of Bob's voice rising, so over the years his rougher edges wore
considerably smoother.
Bob, like his mother, showed his love with his actions. When the kids were young he often held three jobs
simultaneously to make ends meet. The job he loved most was running the chair lift even though if he spent the
night in town with his family he would need to climb the ski hill the next morning to get the lift running. Summer
picnics were adventures in the Willys jeep with all the kids riding in the back. The red ford station wagon carted
everyone to the Aspen Drive Inn Theater to every family movie. Even though pricing was by the car load, Bob
always insisted that all the kids hide quietly under blankets in the back while they paid admission. He was no
doubt looking for a moment of peace. Bob always made sure to pick up his nephew and niece, Gary and Debbie
Dugdale, to join the fun. He found time to be a Boy Scout Merit Badge Counsellor and he was a Little League
Umpire for 25 years. When the boys wanted to wrestle, he put together the wrestling club and championed it for
years traveling to every match with son, Scott, and his grandsons. He took great delight in challenging every
referee causing Barbara to threaten to sit on the other side of the arena so she would not be red-carded with him.
Bob supported kids and grandkids in the 4-H program for many years as well and loved to engage in lively bidding
wars at the livestock auction with Barbara urging restraint to no avail. The Senior Center could count on stocking
their freezer every year.
Bob was well known for his business achievements, from leasing the station that originally sat near the current
Dairy Queen site to relocating to the current location on the west side of town. He began his political career
serving on the Board of Town Planning in 1966, heading up the Chamber of Commerce and serving on the Board
of First Wyoming Bank. Then came his years as Mayor from 1981-1987 and the County Commissioner years of
1994-2002. In the meantime, he served on the Teton County Fair board, worked with Rotary and gladly poured
beer for countless events. Bob had a passion for serving the community and keeping it a place where regular
people could live and raise a family. He was particularly proud of the Town Hall, the Clock Tower and his work
with Jackson's sister city, Lienz, Austria.
Through it all, Bob somehow found time to ski Glory Bowl annually with a group of long-standing friends, fish with
John Ryan and Jim Lais, be on the National Ski Patrol, lead the torch light parade and participate in the hill climb in
the spring. He, Barbara and friends snowmobiled every inch of the valley and the National Parks. He was a life
long member of the Elks and he made sure his membership in Rotary was paid up until the very end. Bob enjoyed
people and his friendships most of all, especially time spent with Jerry DeFrance.
Bob's lifelong project was the Senior Center where he committed his time and his resources. He joined the board
at the age of 38. Anyone who saw the photo gallery lining the walls of the station would know that the founders
and seniors of the community were close to his heart. Even at the end of his life, he was working toward new
goals to better the lives of seniors in the community.
Bob was preceded in death by his parents; his beloved wife, Barbara; son, Harold; brother, Harold and his wife,
Claudette Crisp Shervin and their son, Michael; and his grandson Cody. He is survived by his sister, Doris Dugdale
Taylor, his sons Robert V. (Julie), Darrell (Kathy), Scott (Lettie), daughter-in-love, Mary Smith (Eddie), and daughter
Kristy, his grandchildren: Katie (Kent), Courtney, Levi, Haley, Jay (Bliss), A.J. (Megan), Dan (Jenny), Mitch (Sarah),
Mandy and numerous great-grandchildren, his nephews, Dan (Laura) Shervin and Gary (Ginina) Dugdale and his
niece Deb (Dugdale) King. He will be missed by Cummings family as well. Bob valued his Cummings family
heritage, treasured his Cummings family and was proud to be a life member of the Isaac Cummings Family
Association.
In lieu of flowers, please make memorial contributions to the Senior Center of Jackson Hole.
Memorial Services will be held on Friday, May 12, 2023 at the Fairgrounds Arena at 3:00 p.m.
—————————————————————————
Shervin, a Jackson stalwart, dies at 89
Businessman and public servant championed the elderly, common sense, getting stuff done.
Published in the Jackson Hole News & Guide - Jackson Wyoming, Teton County, Wyoming
May 3, 2023
When Bob Shervin was a boy he milked cows and cut hay on his dad's 80 acres in East Jackson.
Later he ran a gas station and auto shop, and with his wife, Barbara, raised a family in a town that's been mostly replaced by an entirely different community. He straddled the early days of ranching and road-trip vacationers that led to the real estate mecca and international tourism destination of today.
Shervin was known to lament the changes from neighborly small town to don't-even-know-the-neighbors tourism hot spot. But he also helped guide and build the changes over years of public service.
When Bob Shervin died Friday at age 89 his resume included years as Jackson mayor and Teton County commissioner, elected as a commonsense working guy who promised to get mundane but important things done and who thought the government should stay out of people's hair and pay its bills as it went.
He said he wanted to serve, told people that "anything you can do for other people is what makes the community work."
His niece, Deb King, said "Uncle Bob's" view was always "take care of yourself so you're not a burden and then you can turn around and help someone else."
During his time the family dairy farm was replaced first by the modest homes of locals and now by the increasingly fancy second homes of wealthy part-timers. But decades later adjacent land became the Senior Center of Jackson Hole, his favorite project and the one people give credit to Shervin as the man who made it happen.
"My world has been finishing up the Senior Center," he said at a 1997 gathering at which he was named the chamber of commerce's Citizen of the Year. "I think that our senior citizens group is probably neglected more than anyone else in our community. Anything I can do for them is worthwhile."
"I saw him there for over 20 years. I saw him almost every day, especially when we were building," said Connie Owen, who ran the center for many years. "He was always there. We didn't have a construction manager — he just tied it together."
Shervin was born in Jackson on June 15, 1933. His grandparents homesteaded land near the Triangle X Ranch after his granddad Charles Hedrick was "chewed up by a grizzly bear in Colorado" when he trapped its yearling offspring and momma came to the rescue. The grandfather, 18 when he arrived in the Hole, paid $50 in 1905 for 4 acres of what's now downtown Jackson, including the Town Square, and resold it five years later for $75.
Young Bob didn't have it easy. He was expected to labor on the ranch, and when he was 16 his parents decided to move away, and he stayed to support himself and his 14-year-old brother, Harold.
As a side job that first winter without his folks he fed cattle on Mormon Row, 10 miles from Jackson, skiing there each day. His niece King said he told her that in the famous winter of 1949 the snow was so deep that he could ski up to power poles and take a rest leaning on the cross bars. He'd tell of digging down into the snow to reach the top of the haystacks.
"He was working a man's job when he was 10 years old and was on his own when he was 16," King said.
Shervin graduated from Jackson-Wilson High School. Years later, when political opponents listed what they hoped were impressive academic resumes in candidate questionnaires, Shervin's said, "Education: High school." Rather than pointing to his schooling he campaigned instead as a lifelong local, an "honest and successful businessman" and a family man who brought "experience, common sense, responsibility" to his work.
As a young man Shervin worked in the 1950s for a gas station on North Cache, near today's Dairy Queen. He bought the business in 1969, but when he lost the lease he did business on what's now Gregory Lane, then found the place on South Highway 89 where he built Shervin's Independent Oil and Service Center.
In 1981 he paid $100,000 for the acre where the gas station and auto shop now sits, and about a year later spent $150,000 for the adjacent half-acre parcel, where he built a 20-unit apartment building in 2004. Maple Way didn't exist at the time, so Shervin built the first short stretch of the road to help his business.
When he started at the location it "was pretty much outside of town," he said in 2017. "When I bought that land everybody didn't think I was going to make it. Then the town came out and surrounded me."
Over the years the business "raised a lot of families in Jackson, had quite the payroll and paid a lot of sales and property taxes to the town," Shervin said.
But while he had a business to run and a young family, Shervin was drawn to local government. He served 12 years starting in 1969 on the town Planning Commission, eight years as chairman. He was mayor of Jackson from 1981 to 1987, before there was a professional town manager and the mayor actually ran things. In 1994 he was elected to the first of two terms on the Teton County Board of County Commissioners.
Shervin, even then, represented the old population of Jackson, those with roots in the settlement of the area. And while he wasn't strictly anti-growth, and supported such programs as the controversial lodging tax, he often found himself defending what he saw as common sense conservatism in the face of a lot of liberal foolishness. One person called him "a redneck Republican, bless his heart."
He always defended private property rights and often resisted government efforts to control or limit, to impose programs that were presented as the new, smart way of doing things.
"I think that our local ranchers and local property owners are capable of doing their own business with their lands," he said. "I think that private property is very important to the economy of our valley."
He summed it up another time: "I don't believe in taking anything away from anybody."
He told King once that he thought government's job was to provide "protection and infrastructure." After that, he said, government should "leave the people alone to live their lives."
Bob Shervin
Bob Shervin
HANNAH HARDAWAY / COURTESY PHOTO
It wasn't just philosophical; Shervin had his own run-ins with local government. In 1994 he battled town planners over a landscaping requirement at the gas station that he said made no sense. And he didn't like the way he was treated by town employees.
"With what we've got in there now, there is no sense in talking to them," Shervin said of his Town Hall opponents. "You can't work with them. When you're dealing with a bunch of jerks, what do you get?"
He had a running fight with proponents of the town and county's bike and pedestrian path system, then in its starting stage. Though Shervin acknowledged a few cyclists might enjoy the system, and a handful might even bike to work, he wasn't buying the campaign by proponents that the multimillion-dollar investment would become an important part of local transportation or reduce motor vehicle traffic.
When pathway efforts were praised in a newspaper story, Shervin wrote back that he was "especially tired of the Jackson Hole News giving this much publicity to an issue that isn't considered by everyone to be a problem big enough to get more news coverage than other subjects more important to this community. There are some real issues that need honest reporting."
Shervin said of the town-county bus system, another favorite of progressives, that if there was really demand then "private enterprise should take care of it."
Debate about including stringent protection of wildlife in the county master plan prompted Shervin to say that issue wasn't first on his list: "I think we need to take care of people," he said, "and the animals will take care of themselves."
When the Albertsons supermarket chain battled through more than a year of planning debates before building at the "Y" intersection. Shervin sympathized: "How many times have those people jumped through hoops that've been hog manure?" he asked.
During his first run for mayor he vowed to lift the government out of debt, and he did. When he left office there was a $2 million surplus. During his time in office the town built the Town Hall still used today.
•
His love, though, was always the Senior Center. He campaigned for it, convinced the county to sell the land — an old dump — for a dollar, raised money and once gave $25,000, and more other times. He was on the board starting in 1987, and the current building was completed in 1996.
"Always and forever he had a heart for the older members of the community," King said.
Former Senior Center Director Owen said Shervin wasn't shy about using his clout to help the operation.
"After we moved in, there was no money left. ... but it was paid for," Owen recalled. "Then the town came and said, 'You need a retaining wall on the back side,' and we couldn't raise any more money, so Bob said to the town, "If you want us to have a retaining wall you can pay for it,' and sure enough the town of Jackson paid for it.
"If Bob had his mind set on something, it was going to get done," she said.
—————————————————————————
Some more Bob Shervin
Here's a few views of Bob Shervin:
• When Shervin was a young fellow he was working for a rancher when he jumped off a hay wagon, stuck his foot in a gopher hole and broke his leg. He didn't want to let his employer down so he went on working, hobbled as he was. At the end of the week he was in the local rodeo and the horse ended any thought of letting the injury heal itself: Shervin's day ended with the original break elevated to compound fracture. "He went bronc riding with a broken femur," niece Deb King said. "He didn't just talk tough, he talked tough because he was tough."
• When Bob was in high school there was a town cop who used to park at a corner of Town Square for a nap. Bob and some friends snuck up on the dozing lawman one day and strung a cable from his rear axle to a power pole. Then they drove past, honking and yelling. The police pursuit was only about 10 feet long.
• During a heated meeting about whether the county should spray the insecticide Malathion to suppress the area's annual mosquito tsunami, Shervin acknowledged the trepidation about the chemical but added "I won't rule it out because I've spent time in this country when you couldn't even breathe because of the mosquitos."
• After years in public office, when Shervin was deciding on his last run for commissioner his wife Barbara tried to dissuade him, having had enough. But when she saw him leaning toward a final campaign, she said she'd do her part, but with limits: "I'm not going to any dinners, I'm not wearing a dress, I'm not taking phone messages," she said. And she didn't. Shervin ran and won.
• Bob and Barbara met when she was still in high school and was working at a gas station in Big Piney. One day she washed the windshield of a ranch hand who turned out to be Bob Shervin. They married in February 1953. She worked until 1999 for her husband's gas and auto shop business pumping gas and keeping the books. Her 2018 obituary said she "drew the line at tire repairs."
• Bob Shervin liked beer, and when newly married took a bartending job in Big Piney. When there was a fight one night he jumped over the bar with a baseball bat in hand, then came around the next day to be told he'd be stabbed. That discouraged him from a bartending career, though afterwards he always liked to serve the brew at fundraising events: "He loved being the guy who poured the beer," King said.
June 15, 1933 — April 28, 2023
Jackson, WY
Robert Lee Shervin came to this valley at his birth on June15, 1933 and left the valley on April 28, 2023. In the years in between he raised his family, built businesses and served his community surrounded by the mountains he loved. Bob was born to Robert J. Shervin aka Floyd Cummings and Margaret Hedrick. Robert J. came to the valley to hide his past. Margaret's father, Charlie, homesteaded near the Triangle X and became one of the first county commissioners. Brother Harold and sister Doris soon joined their older brother Bob. During the war years, the family moved often following available work but Jackson was always home. For some time they operated the Twin Rock Dairy located in Porcupine Creek. Bob and Harold were doing the job of field hands while going to school but one of Bob's favorite childhood memories was riding his favorite horse on Hog Island in those years. In 1949, the dairy closed and Robert J. and Margaret took a job for the winter in 29 Palms, California, leaving Bob and Harold on their own in Jackson at 16 and 15. From this experience came Bob's lifelong motto:
"The first thing you do is take care of yourself so that you aren't a burden to anyone and then, as soon as you are
able, you reach back and help someone who is having a harder time than you are."
Bob fed cows on Mormon Row that historic winter, skiing 10 miles back and forth from town on snow so deep
that he could rest on the cross bars of the telephone poles. They had to dig down through the snow to find the
top of the haystacks.
When spring came, Bob went to work for Joe Budd in Big Piney. Bob took the ranch truck to town and met the
love of his life, Barbara Jane Decker, pumping gas and washing windshields. They were married by Judge Lange
with only his wife Helen as a witness at the Lange's home on Valentine's Day, 1953. They were as poor as a
newlywed couple could possibly be but between the two of them they had enough strong will and grit to
accomplish anything. Barbara said the secret to their long marriage was that there was never a time that they
both wanted a divorce at the same time. Bob's good looks always turned a head or two over the years. He said
he never had eyes for anyone but Barbara, but it was fun when someone else's second look kept Barbara
interested. They tormented and sparred with each other through 66 years of marriage. Bob loved to exasperate
Barbara right down to routinely hiding the last few pieces of every puzzle. He wanted to have the last word and
put in the last piece!
Bob and Barbara wanted a large family and in no short order came Bobby, Darrell, Harold, Scott and Kristy. The
Shervin household was loud, chaotic and perfectly situated at 585 E. Hansen to be regularly overrun by cousins
and a large part of Jackson elementary. Brother Harold's family lived across the street and their life long best
friends, John and Marge Ryan occupied the corner. Hot tempers and short fuses are a genetic predisposition for
Shervin's, so life was not always idyllic. Bob's upbringing did not prepare him for parenthood but the
grandchildren seem to take little notice of Bob's voice rising, so over the years his rougher edges wore
considerably smoother.
Bob, like his mother, showed his love with his actions. When the kids were young he often held three jobs
simultaneously to make ends meet. The job he loved most was running the chair lift even though if he spent the
night in town with his family he would need to climb the ski hill the next morning to get the lift running. Summer
picnics were adventures in the Willys jeep with all the kids riding in the back. The red ford station wagon carted
everyone to the Aspen Drive Inn Theater to every family movie. Even though pricing was by the car load, Bob
always insisted that all the kids hide quietly under blankets in the back while they paid admission. He was no
doubt looking for a moment of peace. Bob always made sure to pick up his nephew and niece, Gary and Debbie
Dugdale, to join the fun. He found time to be a Boy Scout Merit Badge Counsellor and he was a Little League
Umpire for 25 years. When the boys wanted to wrestle, he put together the wrestling club and championed it for
years traveling to every match with son, Scott, and his grandsons. He took great delight in challenging every
referee causing Barbara to threaten to sit on the other side of the arena so she would not be red-carded with him.
Bob supported kids and grandkids in the 4-H program for many years as well and loved to engage in lively bidding
wars at the livestock auction with Barbara urging restraint to no avail. The Senior Center could count on stocking
their freezer every year.
Bob was well known for his business achievements, from leasing the station that originally sat near the current
Dairy Queen site to relocating to the current location on the west side of town. He began his political career
serving on the Board of Town Planning in 1966, heading up the Chamber of Commerce and serving on the Board
of First Wyoming Bank. Then came his years as Mayor from 1981-1987 and the County Commissioner years of
1994-2002. In the meantime, he served on the Teton County Fair board, worked with Rotary and gladly poured
beer for countless events. Bob had a passion for serving the community and keeping it a place where regular
people could live and raise a family. He was particularly proud of the Town Hall, the Clock Tower and his work
with Jackson's sister city, Lienz, Austria.
Through it all, Bob somehow found time to ski Glory Bowl annually with a group of long-standing friends, fish with
John Ryan and Jim Lais, be on the National Ski Patrol, lead the torch light parade and participate in the hill climb in
the spring. He, Barbara and friends snowmobiled every inch of the valley and the National Parks. He was a life
long member of the Elks and he made sure his membership in Rotary was paid up until the very end. Bob enjoyed
people and his friendships most of all, especially time spent with Jerry DeFrance.
Bob's lifelong project was the Senior Center where he committed his time and his resources. He joined the board
at the age of 38. Anyone who saw the photo gallery lining the walls of the station would know that the founders
and seniors of the community were close to his heart. Even at the end of his life, he was working toward new
goals to better the lives of seniors in the community.
Bob was preceded in death by his parents; his beloved wife, Barbara; son, Harold; brother, Harold and his wife,
Claudette Crisp Shervin and their son, Michael; and his grandson Cody. He is survived by his sister, Doris Dugdale
Taylor, his sons Robert V. (Julie), Darrell (Kathy), Scott (Lettie), daughter-in-love, Mary Smith (Eddie), and daughter
Kristy, his grandchildren: Katie (Kent), Courtney, Levi, Haley, Jay (Bliss), A.J. (Megan), Dan (Jenny), Mitch (Sarah),
Mandy and numerous great-grandchildren, his nephews, Dan (Laura) Shervin and Gary (Ginina) Dugdale and his
niece Deb (Dugdale) King. He will be missed by Cummings family as well. Bob valued his Cummings family
heritage, treasured his Cummings family and was proud to be a life member of the Isaac Cummings Family
Association.
In lieu of flowers, please make memorial contributions to the Senior Center of Jackson Hole.
Memorial Services will be held on Friday, May 12, 2023 at the Fairgrounds Arena at 3:00 p.m.
—————————————————————————
Shervin, a Jackson stalwart, dies at 89
Businessman and public servant championed the elderly, common sense, getting stuff done.
Published in the Jackson Hole News & Guide - Jackson Wyoming, Teton County, Wyoming
May 3, 2023
When Bob Shervin was a boy he milked cows and cut hay on his dad's 80 acres in East Jackson.
Later he ran a gas station and auto shop, and with his wife, Barbara, raised a family in a town that's been mostly replaced by an entirely different community. He straddled the early days of ranching and road-trip vacationers that led to the real estate mecca and international tourism destination of today.
Shervin was known to lament the changes from neighborly small town to don't-even-know-the-neighbors tourism hot spot. But he also helped guide and build the changes over years of public service.
When Bob Shervin died Friday at age 89 his resume included years as Jackson mayor and Teton County commissioner, elected as a commonsense working guy who promised to get mundane but important things done and who thought the government should stay out of people's hair and pay its bills as it went.
He said he wanted to serve, told people that "anything you can do for other people is what makes the community work."
His niece, Deb King, said "Uncle Bob's" view was always "take care of yourself so you're not a burden and then you can turn around and help someone else."
During his time the family dairy farm was replaced first by the modest homes of locals and now by the increasingly fancy second homes of wealthy part-timers. But decades later adjacent land became the Senior Center of Jackson Hole, his favorite project and the one people give credit to Shervin as the man who made it happen.
"My world has been finishing up the Senior Center," he said at a 1997 gathering at which he was named the chamber of commerce's Citizen of the Year. "I think that our senior citizens group is probably neglected more than anyone else in our community. Anything I can do for them is worthwhile."
"I saw him there for over 20 years. I saw him almost every day, especially when we were building," said Connie Owen, who ran the center for many years. "He was always there. We didn't have a construction manager — he just tied it together."
Shervin was born in Jackson on June 15, 1933. His grandparents homesteaded land near the Triangle X Ranch after his granddad Charles Hedrick was "chewed up by a grizzly bear in Colorado" when he trapped its yearling offspring and momma came to the rescue. The grandfather, 18 when he arrived in the Hole, paid $50 in 1905 for 4 acres of what's now downtown Jackson, including the Town Square, and resold it five years later for $75.
Young Bob didn't have it easy. He was expected to labor on the ranch, and when he was 16 his parents decided to move away, and he stayed to support himself and his 14-year-old brother, Harold.
As a side job that first winter without his folks he fed cattle on Mormon Row, 10 miles from Jackson, skiing there each day. His niece King said he told her that in the famous winter of 1949 the snow was so deep that he could ski up to power poles and take a rest leaning on the cross bars. He'd tell of digging down into the snow to reach the top of the haystacks.
"He was working a man's job when he was 10 years old and was on his own when he was 16," King said.
Shervin graduated from Jackson-Wilson High School. Years later, when political opponents listed what they hoped were impressive academic resumes in candidate questionnaires, Shervin's said, "Education: High school." Rather than pointing to his schooling he campaigned instead as a lifelong local, an "honest and successful businessman" and a family man who brought "experience, common sense, responsibility" to his work.
As a young man Shervin worked in the 1950s for a gas station on North Cache, near today's Dairy Queen. He bought the business in 1969, but when he lost the lease he did business on what's now Gregory Lane, then found the place on South Highway 89 where he built Shervin's Independent Oil and Service Center.
In 1981 he paid $100,000 for the acre where the gas station and auto shop now sits, and about a year later spent $150,000 for the adjacent half-acre parcel, where he built a 20-unit apartment building in 2004. Maple Way didn't exist at the time, so Shervin built the first short stretch of the road to help his business.
When he started at the location it "was pretty much outside of town," he said in 2017. "When I bought that land everybody didn't think I was going to make it. Then the town came out and surrounded me."
Over the years the business "raised a lot of families in Jackson, had quite the payroll and paid a lot of sales and property taxes to the town," Shervin said.
But while he had a business to run and a young family, Shervin was drawn to local government. He served 12 years starting in 1969 on the town Planning Commission, eight years as chairman. He was mayor of Jackson from 1981 to 1987, before there was a professional town manager and the mayor actually ran things. In 1994 he was elected to the first of two terms on the Teton County Board of County Commissioners.
Shervin, even then, represented the old population of Jackson, those with roots in the settlement of the area. And while he wasn't strictly anti-growth, and supported such programs as the controversial lodging tax, he often found himself defending what he saw as common sense conservatism in the face of a lot of liberal foolishness. One person called him "a redneck Republican, bless his heart."
He always defended private property rights and often resisted government efforts to control or limit, to impose programs that were presented as the new, smart way of doing things.
"I think that our local ranchers and local property owners are capable of doing their own business with their lands," he said. "I think that private property is very important to the economy of our valley."
He summed it up another time: "I don't believe in taking anything away from anybody."
He told King once that he thought government's job was to provide "protection and infrastructure." After that, he said, government should "leave the people alone to live their lives."
Bob Shervin
Bob Shervin
HANNAH HARDAWAY / COURTESY PHOTO
It wasn't just philosophical; Shervin had his own run-ins with local government. In 1994 he battled town planners over a landscaping requirement at the gas station that he said made no sense. And he didn't like the way he was treated by town employees.
"With what we've got in there now, there is no sense in talking to them," Shervin said of his Town Hall opponents. "You can't work with them. When you're dealing with a bunch of jerks, what do you get?"
He had a running fight with proponents of the town and county's bike and pedestrian path system, then in its starting stage. Though Shervin acknowledged a few cyclists might enjoy the system, and a handful might even bike to work, he wasn't buying the campaign by proponents that the multimillion-dollar investment would become an important part of local transportation or reduce motor vehicle traffic.
When pathway efforts were praised in a newspaper story, Shervin wrote back that he was "especially tired of the Jackson Hole News giving this much publicity to an issue that isn't considered by everyone to be a problem big enough to get more news coverage than other subjects more important to this community. There are some real issues that need honest reporting."
Shervin said of the town-county bus system, another favorite of progressives, that if there was really demand then "private enterprise should take care of it."
Debate about including stringent protection of wildlife in the county master plan prompted Shervin to say that issue wasn't first on his list: "I think we need to take care of people," he said, "and the animals will take care of themselves."
When the Albertsons supermarket chain battled through more than a year of planning debates before building at the "Y" intersection. Shervin sympathized: "How many times have those people jumped through hoops that've been hog manure?" he asked.
During his first run for mayor he vowed to lift the government out of debt, and he did. When he left office there was a $2 million surplus. During his time in office the town built the Town Hall still used today.
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His love, though, was always the Senior Center. He campaigned for it, convinced the county to sell the land — an old dump — for a dollar, raised money and once gave $25,000, and more other times. He was on the board starting in 1987, and the current building was completed in 1996.
"Always and forever he had a heart for the older members of the community," King said.
Former Senior Center Director Owen said Shervin wasn't shy about using his clout to help the operation.
"After we moved in, there was no money left. ... but it was paid for," Owen recalled. "Then the town came and said, 'You need a retaining wall on the back side,' and we couldn't raise any more money, so Bob said to the town, "If you want us to have a retaining wall you can pay for it,' and sure enough the town of Jackson paid for it.
"If Bob had his mind set on something, it was going to get done," she said.
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Some more Bob Shervin
Here's a few views of Bob Shervin:
• When Shervin was a young fellow he was working for a rancher when he jumped off a hay wagon, stuck his foot in a gopher hole and broke his leg. He didn't want to let his employer down so he went on working, hobbled as he was. At the end of the week he was in the local rodeo and the horse ended any thought of letting the injury heal itself: Shervin's day ended with the original break elevated to compound fracture. "He went bronc riding with a broken femur," niece Deb King said. "He didn't just talk tough, he talked tough because he was tough."
• When Bob was in high school there was a town cop who used to park at a corner of Town Square for a nap. Bob and some friends snuck up on the dozing lawman one day and strung a cable from his rear axle to a power pole. Then they drove past, honking and yelling. The police pursuit was only about 10 feet long.
• During a heated meeting about whether the county should spray the insecticide Malathion to suppress the area's annual mosquito tsunami, Shervin acknowledged the trepidation about the chemical but added "I won't rule it out because I've spent time in this country when you couldn't even breathe because of the mosquitos."
• After years in public office, when Shervin was deciding on his last run for commissioner his wife Barbara tried to dissuade him, having had enough. But when she saw him leaning toward a final campaign, she said she'd do her part, but with limits: "I'm not going to any dinners, I'm not wearing a dress, I'm not taking phone messages," she said. And she didn't. Shervin ran and won.
• Bob and Barbara met when she was still in high school and was working at a gas station in Big Piney. One day she washed the windshield of a ranch hand who turned out to be Bob Shervin. They married in February 1953. She worked until 1999 for her husband's gas and auto shop business pumping gas and keeping the books. Her 2018 obituary said she "drew the line at tire repairs."
• Bob Shervin liked beer, and when newly married took a bartending job in Big Piney. When there was a fight one night he jumped over the bar with a baseball bat in hand, then came around the next day to be told he'd be stabbed. That discouraged him from a bartending career, though afterwards he always liked to serve the brew at fundraising events: "He loved being the guy who poured the beer," King said.
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