You can tell a lot about a place by the way it remembers its leaders. In Bucoda, where the population hovers just under 600, the people are planning to gather on Aug. 19 to do something big: rename the town’s post office in honor of their late mayor, Rob Gordon.
That says everything you need to know about Rob: a humble man, a local mayor and a lifelong firefighter who left a mark so deep that Congress unanimously passed legislation to honor his name.
That doesn’t happen often. But then again, Rob wasn’t like most people.
A legacy carved in service
I knew Rob for most of my life, though I couldn't tell you exactly when we met. In towns like ours, you don’t always “meet people.” You just grow up alongside them. It’s more like family. We both grew up following our fathers around fire stations. We both went to Washington State University, and we both returned home to serve our communities.
He became mayor of Bucoda. I became mayor of Tenino. We both got into public service the way most people in small towns do, not for ego, not for prestige, but because we believed in our neighbors and wanted to make our hometowns better.
And then this past year, as fate would have it, we both got cancer.
It’s hard to explain what it’s like to face that diagnosis while also showing up every day to lead, but we did, and somehow, Rob made it look easy. He kept working. He carried out his duties as mayor, firefighter, rancher, truck driver and dad. And even when he was sitting in a chemotherapy chair, he still found time to text me from his treatment room while I sat in mine because as fate continued to run us along parallel lines, we even ended up on the same chemo treatment schedule. We’d check in on each other, cracked jokes, offered encouragement and traded some pretty awesome chemo selfies.
We became “cancer battle buddies,” sharing the same chemotherapy foxhole, as strange as that sounds. Two local guys leaning on each other during the hardest chapters of our lives. I looked forward to those texts more than I can say, and I hope he did too.
Rob showed us what leadership looks like. Leadership isn’t always about big speeches or sweeping changes. Sometimes it’s about taking the town’s fire truck out for a repair run because no one else can. It’s about making sure your kids can ride their bikes down the street safely. It’s about fighting for grants, wrangling red tape and fixing what needs fixing, without making a show of it.
That’s how Rob led: quietly, consistently and with heart.
He worked to secure federal funding for a new fire engine. He fought to upgrade water infrastructure. He championed the town’s tourism efforts and community identity. He made sure Bucoda wasn’t forgotten, and that it had a future.
He was a workhorse, not a show horse. The kind of public servant you only truly appreciate when you realize how rare they are.
A post office and a reminder
U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Skamania, who worked with Rob closely on Bucoda’s priorities, led the bipartisan effort to pass House Resolution 9421, renaming Bucoda’s post office in his honor. It was signed into law by President Biden earlier this year.
It’s not just a name change. It’s a message.
As generations of kids walk past that post office, they’ll ask, “Who was Rob Gordon?” And the answer will say everything about the values we hold as a community: service, humility, grit and showing up, even when life gets hard. It will elevate the conversation around a leader in their community who kept serving his community, even when life got tough.
Rob didn’t expect accolades. He never would’ve asked for this. But he earned it. And as we look ahead, it’s on us to carry his work forward.
Bucoda has big shoes to fill. But it also has a blueprint thanks to Rob: keep the town safe, invest in people, fight for funding and never forget who you are doing the work for.
Most of all — show up!
Final thought
Earlier this year, I had the honor and privilege of giving Rob’s eulogy at his memorial in Bucoda, and I said then what I still believe now: the only thing that truly matters in the end is the love you’ve shown others. Rob had a lot of love and he gave it out to many around him.
Rob showed us that love through action, service and sacrifice.
As they say, wounds heal but the scars remain and if I’m honest, there’s a part of me that still struggles with the fact that I’m here and he isn’t. That’s the quiet burden survivors carry. But I also know Rob wouldn’t want guilt. He’d want good work. He’d want us to keep going.
No one has shown greater resilience and ability to do that than his wife, Miriam, who continues to serve Bucoda and carry Rob’s memory forward every day.
So, as we gather on Aug. 19 at 3 p.m. in Bucoda to rename a post office, let’s also recommit to the work of making our communities stronger. Let’s honor him not just with words, but with action.
Honor him by stepping up, because that’s what Rob would’ve done.
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Wayne Fournier is a Thurston County commissioner, former Tenino mayor, firefighter and lifelong community advocate. He believes that small towns are the last frontier of big ideas. He shares stories of civic creativity, leadership and community-building in his regular newspaper column.
