After bike collision, Berkeley school rallies around 'Mr. Bob'
"He's always here," said Rachel Terp, Emerson PTA president. "I never saw him miss a day."
On Tuesday morning, many people were concerned when Robert Clear didn't show up for AM drop-off at Emerson Elementary.
Clear, known on campus as "Mr. Bob," has been a fixture at Emerson for decades, opening car doors to help kids get out so traffic can move along.
"Every parent and kid knows him," said Lori Droste, former City Council rep for the district. "We always see him when we're the most frazzled. He's just this stable presence."
"He's always here. I never saw him miss a day," said Rachel Terp, Emerson PTA president. "When he wasn't there in the morning to greet people, we were very surprised."
As it turned out, Clear had been just blocks away, on Derby Street, when police say a driver intentionally struck him after running down two other people in the neighborhood.
Emilie Raguso
All three Berkeley residents remain hospitalized this week in stable condition, police say — but recovery is a long way off.
"It has been intense," said Barbara Judd, Clear's wife, on Wednesday night.
"He's doing OK," she said. "He hurts, but it's not high-level pain. It's just there so much of the time."
Among other injuries, Clear's broken bones — one vertebra, multiple ribs — could take months to heal.
On Thursday, he's scheduled for hip surgery. He hopes to be out of the ICU soon.
Clear also sustained a head injury, Judd said. His helmet saved his life.
"The styrofoam lining was crushed in back," she said. "It didn't crack. It stayed on."
"This is a teaching moment for all the kids," Judd continued: "Wear your helmet —and tell your parents to wear theirs."
Mr. Bob has deep roots at Emerson Elementary
Clear, now 78, himself attended Emerson Elementary in the 1950s. Decades later, in the 1990s, his son and daughter went there, too.
When their kids were in school, Judd said, Clear noticed how traffic would back up outside Emerson as the day began.
"The bus drivers had to wait for parents dropping their kids off," she said. "People were just not keeping it moving."
Drivers would double-park. People would get blocked in and try reversing. Parents would park in the bus lane. It wasn't good.
So Clear came up with a solution: He began directing traffic, opening car doors to help the kids get out, greeting Emerson families every morning.
"He learned everyone's name. He's good at recognizing people," Judd said.
When their son and daughter moved on to middle school, "he saw no reason to stop."
An "unassuming man with a slightly sardonic smile"
Clear is a longtime bike commuter, including up into the Berkeley Hills, enjoying the exercise as well as the glorious views.
The couple don't own a car — and, for the most part, never have.
In their South Berkeley neighborhood, Clear is known as "Bicycle Bob," inspiring a write-up in the local paper in the year 2000 for his volunteer efforts fixing kids' bikes. That work never stopped.
The reporter at the time, for the Berkeley Daily Planet, described Clear as an "unsung hero": an "unassuming man with a slightly sardonic smile" who was "modest about his contribution."
When he wasn't fixing bikes, Clear spent nearly four decades working at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, describing himself on his LinkedIn page as a "refired rehired retiree."
("Refired" was a nod to a failed attempt to cut him from the lab's ranks during a Reagan-era staffing overhaul.)
These days, Clear still often heads up into the hills for his morning ride before ending up at Emerson.
On a recent weekend, the couple did a test ride over the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge to confirm they could get to Mill Valley by bike for Clear's upcoming 60th reunion at Tamalpais High School.
"He got that ride in," Judd said. "He won't be biking for awhile."
A lifelong cyclist, this week's bike crash wasn't Clear's first in Berkeley.
As a child, he was once riding his Schwinn down Claremont Avenue near the hotel when a driver in a convertible turned right abruptly onto the road ahead of him, leaving him no room to stop.
Clear hit the car and ended up in the backseat, largely unscathed. The back of the car wasn't so lucky.
Judd said she had been surprised to learn Clear was on Derby Street at the time of the collision, because that wasn't his usual route.
On Wednesday night, she said she wanted to offer a "profound thank you to everyone who helped," including those who used their towel, a tablecloth and a tank top to help dress Clear's wounds and make him comfortable before first responders came.
Judd has already cleaned the items and said they're ready for return. (Contact The Scanner to make arrangements.)
Clear is still missing his glasses, she added, in case those turn up.
Emerson PTA: "We're just all glad that he's OK"
A longtime Emerson neighbor was the first to alert The Scanner, early Tuesday afternoon, about the cyclist's possible identity.
After seeing suspicious activity on her block during her morning dog walk, she had come across the crash aftermath on Derby Street: a bicyclist "on the ground surrounded by helpers." Witnesses described a large pool of blood nearby.
The cyclist, she said, looked very much like Mr. Bob — whom she'd seen helping with school traffic outside Emerson for at least 15 years.
"Not sure if that's him, but also didn't see him at work this morning," she wrote.
He wasn't there the next day either.
But, in what one person called "true Mr. Bob fashion," Clear sent his daughter to stand in for him, determined not to leave his post unattended two days running.
She showed up to school wearing a headband decorated with pylons and a reflective vest like her dad's.
"Maybe she'll just stay with it," her mother mused Wednesday night.
Terp, the Emerson PTA president, said everyone had been moved by the gesture.
"We couldn't believe he had gotten her to come," she said. "After everything that happened, he was thinking about this role of his."
The school community quickly began collecting "cards and well wishes to bring to him in the hospital." There's talk of a possible meal train and fundraiser, too.
Terp credited Mr. Bob and his longtime crossing guard partner, Janet, with "keeping everyone safe in the mornings" on their way in to school.
This week, she said, it hadn't taken long for people to realize why Mr. Bob wasn't there. And it had been a shock to hear what happened.
"You never want anything like this to happen to anyone," she said. "We're just all glad that he's OK."
