Colorado State Board of Education

Bob Schaffer (R)
Fourth 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.

He is chairman of the Leadership Program of the Rockies, a corporation providing economic and political leadership training in Colorado.

He is also the Colorado Chairman of the Judicial Confirmation Network. He serves as Commissioner of the Eighth Judicial District Nominating Commission.

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.

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 Congress to honor a voluntary term-limit pledge he had taken when he first ran. Thereafter he became vice-president for business development at a Denver-based energy company where he was involved in a variety of energy, mining and education projects. He was also a Trustee of Yorktown University. He resigned both positions to run for a seat in the United States Senate in 2008.

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 majoring in Political Science. 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. 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