Board Member Profiles
Bob Schaffer (R)
Chairman
4th Congressional District,
Fort Collins
Terms of Office:
January 2006 – January 2013
Bob Schaffer is chairman of the Colorado State Board of Education. His Board constituency is the state’s Fourth Congressional District.
Professionally, Schaffer is Principal of Liberty
Common High School in Fort Collins, Colorado. The school is a public,
tuition-free, college-preparatory charter school serving students grades
7 – 12 and consistently rates among the state’s top-performing schools.
Schaffer is also chairman of the Leadership Program of the Rockies, a
corporation providing economic and political leadership training in
Colorado. Additionally, he is a Trustee of Yorktown University,
headquartered in Denver.
From 1997 until early 2003, he represented Colorado’s Fourth
Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives.
Upon his retirement from the Congress, Schaffer was awarded the
Benemerenti Medal by His Holiness John Paul II.
Schaffer left the U.S. House after the 107th Congress to
honor a voluntary term-limit pledge he had taken when he first ran for
the post. Thereafter he became vice-president for business development
at a Denver-based energy company where he was involved in a variety of
renewable and conventional energy, mining and education projects. He
resigned this position to run for a seat in the United States Senate in
2008.
From 1989 to 1995, Schaffer owned and operated
Northern Front Range Marketing and Distribution, a small marketing
business serving Colorado’s tourism industry. Beginning in 1987, he
served nine years in the Colorado State Senate, where he was Chairman of
the Senate Finance Committee, and Chairman of the State, Veterans and
Military Affairs Committee, and Vice-Chairman of the Senate Education
Committee.
He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. He graduated from Archbishop Moeller
High School and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of
Dayton. He received an honorary doctorate in Management from Colorado
Technical University. He holds a second-degree black belt in Tae Kwon
Do. Bob and his wife Dr. Maureen Schaffer (electrical engineer) have
five children – three of whom currently serve on active duty in the U.S.
Army (2) and U.S. Air Force (1). The Schaffers are Roman Catholic and
are members of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish in Fort Collins.
For additional information, e-mail: state.board@cde.state.co.us.