Born in 1958. He is a graduate of Belmont HS. Then it was off to Virginia Tech where he earned a degree in Civil Engineering.
Cliff loves working outdoors which turned his professional pursuits to the field of surveying. Cliff received his first Professional Surveyors Stamp in 1987 and is now registered in three states.
In 1998, Cliff started, and has been running and growing Rober Survey ever since.
While playing volleyball he met his wife Lisa. He still remembers asking her to see the movie “Tootsie,” she said yes, and in 1987 she said yes again when he asked her to marry him. The couple has a son Kyle born in 1988, a daughter Samantha born in 1990 and the couple has been raising their niece Ashleigh.
When Cliff was laid off from Beals & Thomas, Lisa volunteered him to help coach Kyle’s soccer team; almost instantly he was hooked on soccer.In 1998 he took the state soccer referee’s course and he has been refereeing soccer games ever since.
Cliff’s journey to being a District Governor began when I took him to lunch at Woodman’s seafood in the Fall of 2019. At that time a vacancy existed in the line to be District Governor and the District Nominating committee was scrambling for qualified candidates to fill it. This was not an easy task as it meant the successful candidate would miss a critical year of preparation.
The Nominating committee asked for help from the District Council and I thought of Cliff. A guy who I knew, from his year as President of our Bedford club, had proven he could lead with a fair and even approach, was fairly unflappable, and a quick learner. At lunch that day I suggested he might want to consider putting in an application to fill the DG vacancy. He said he’d think it over and talk with Lisa. Fortunately, Lisa said it was OK and Cliff said yes and a few months later the District Nominating committee recommended Cliff to be our DG for 2021-2022.
When I think of Cliff I think of sneakers. That’s happened to me once before with Jim Fusco. Jim had forgotten to bring his shoes to our district conference and had to wear his white sneakers for the whole weekend. I suggested to Jim at the time that he wear sneakers for the whole year as his trademark. He actually did, and it worked out fantastically well, and Jim went on to be one of the best DG’s our district has ever had. Well Jim, Cliff is taking this “sneaker thing” to a whole new level. He’s adding “color” to the mix. Whenever Cliff would come to one of our club meetings he would wear a new, brightly colored, pair of “Newbalance” sneakers. This might make more sense to you knowing his daughter Samantha was, at that time, the regional sales representative for Newbalance sneakers and every time she would see her dad, she’d give him another pair of the latest and greatest sneakers.
 
These colorful sneakers actually tell you a lot about Cliff because they speak to his love of children. If he is not surveying property somewhere, being a husband to Lisa, a dad to Kyle, Samantha, and Ashleigh, coaching and referring  soccer games, overseeing our club’s scholarship program, I guarantee he has his eyes and ears open for projects that will help make our world a better place for all these kids to grow up in.
Cliff is a quiet kind of a man, but don’t let that fool you. All his life experiences have made him a great negotiator and a leader that can forge compromises and move things forward. He has definite ideas, and his own way of doing things. You had better have a darned convincing and compelling argument to persuade him to change. He brings all this experience to Rotary, an organization filled with class A personalities. He will use these skills to bring many differing points of view into a single course of action.
 

The heck of it is … he’s usually right anyway! Just ask him, he’ll tell you. … We disagree quite a bit, but over the years I have come to respect his ideas, his opinions, and to call him my friend.