Community Volunteer Awards

2022 Honoree

Robert McGarvey

Rancho Cordovan of the Year

Robert McGarvey

When Bob McGarvey first ran for the Rancho Cordova City Council way back in 2002, his campaign slogan was “been there for the long haul.” Truer words were never spoken.

You would need to be an old timer to know that it was Bob who kept the lamplight of incorporation burning for more than 30 years – through thick and thin – as an idea destined to become reality took shape.

Rancho Cordova homeowners since 1967, Bob and Terri came here with the US Air Force, fell in love with the place, and never left.

He early on became involved with the Cordova Community Council, serving as president three times during those early, lean, pre-cityhood years. Active in community, school and church organizations, he was named the Rancho Cordova Man of the Year by the Grapevine Independent newspaper in 1987 and was just warming up. 

After Mather Air Force Base closed in 1992, he became a member of the Mather Restoration Advisory Board in 1994 and has served there ever since. He is a long hauler of the Mather Community Campus oversight committee, serving since its inception in 1994, and served a term on the Rancho Cordova Chamber of Commerce in the run-up to incorporation.

But while Bob has been in the lead of just about every positive effort in Rancho Cordova for more than a half century, he will be most remembered for soldiering on after many early setbacks for the incorporation of Rancho Cordova, never losing faith. 

When the election was finally held in 2002 and the votes were in, more than 77 percent of the citizens had voted themselves a new city, the largest margin of an incorporation in California history and a record that still stands today. A lot of people would have declared victory and retired to a favorite fishing hole, but for Bob the work had just begun. That’s because in the same election, the voters also rewarded Bob with a seat on the new City Council. 

During his first tenure as Mayor, Bob led the formation of a Sister City Citizens Committee that resulted in Turrialba, Costa Rica becoming a Sister City of Rancho Cordova. He represented fellow Rancho Cordovans on numerous boards and commissions to improve the city and region, on the national, state, regional and local level.

A lifelong supporter of fellow veterans, he later established the Rancho Cordova Veterans Day and Memorial Day celebrations – work which continues to this day.  As a councilman, he led the drive to build Mather Veterans Village. Veterans have never had a better friend in Rancho Cordova than Bob McGarvey.

After decades of public service his accomplishments earned a rare and precious reward with the 2017 opening of the Robert J. McGarvey Elementary School, located in a new neighborhood of the city he helped make a reality.

Bob is often called the “Father of Rancho Cordova” for leading the successful charge for cityhood, and while he certainly did not do it alone, it may never have happened if Bob was not the type of guy who commits to something and sticks with it for as long as it takes.

There is a pattern to Bob’s life that makes him the respected individual he has become. He has served his country in the US Air Force, his family through 50 years of marriage, and countless Rancho Cordova organizations and institutions with kindness, dedication and love. His steady stewardship of the City of Rancho Cordova at its birth and early formative years set a high bar for those who will follow.

As the city approaches the 20th anniversary of the historic vote which established our city later this year, it is time to bestow one more honor to add to the countless others: 

Bob McGarvey, Rancho Cordovan of the Year for the long haul -- then, now and always.