Park District General Manager Robert Doyle
Retiring After 47-Year Career in Environmental
Doubled Size of District from 59,689 to 125,000 Acres
18 MARKETPLACECONTRACOSTA.COM FEBRUARY 2021
Provided By East Bay Regional Park District
As Robert Doyle retired at the end of December 2020 after 47 years
at EBRPD, including ten years at the helm as General Manager, he
leaves many legacies that will benefit the lives of East Bay residents
into perpetuity. Doyle was acknowledged at the Tuesday, December, 15
Park District Board of Directors meeting.
“It has been such an honor to lead the District and the talented staff
that make Regional Parks work, including daily park operations and
maintenance, interpretation and recreation programs, land acquisition
and park planning, and police and fire protection, to name a few,” said
Park District General Manager Robert Doyle. “The Park District’s
success is about having a team committed to our 86-year mission to
protect public open space, wildlife, and habitat while providing quality
parks for recreation.”
“Preserving land for parks on a large landscape scale has been
something I’ve been passionate about and is worth fighting for,” added
Doyle.
Doyle is a visionary thinker and long-range planner capable of being
attentive to details about projects, partnerships, and the history of
virtually every piece of land the Park District owns. He has been
intimately involved with the creation of the last three Park District
masterplans, essentially creating the roadmap for East Bay Regional
Park District expansion.
“Parks do their best when they have a great leader, and the East Bay
has had incredible leadership with Bob Doyle,” said Former Director
of National Park Service John Jarvis, who served under President
Barack Obama. “Bob is not only a visionary but someone who can
deliver on that vision at the same time, a rare quality.”
Doyle more than doubled the size of the Park District in acreage,
parks, and trails. Several of his other significant accomplishments have
been lauded by leaders within the East Bay:
• Three former military bases closed during the Clinton
administration are now approved for redevelopment into the
future with publicly accessible regional parklands.
• Doyle successfully fought a 20-year battle for environmental
justice along the Richmond shoreline, including the Dotson
Family Marsh (named after the family who began the fight to
acquire this property for the public) that offers spectacular access
along the Bay adjacent to a predominantly Black community near
Point Pinole in Richmond.
• Closing gaps incrementally along the San Francisco Bay Trail,
including developing two pedestrian bridges over busy BNSF
railroad tracks. Doyle is responsible for the Park District’s mostly
contiguous Bay Trail along the 55 miles of East Bay urban
shoreline.
• McLaughlin Eastshore State Park grew out of community
support by leaders like Sylvia McLaughlin, co-founder of
Save the Bay, who fought to remove garbage dumps from the
Berkeley shoreline;
under Doyle’s
leadership, a close
partnership exists
with a 30-year
management plan
between the State
of California and
the Park District
to manage this
popular destination
for recreation and
environmental
enthusiasts.
• Doyle significantly
increased the
Park District’s
connection with
multicultural
communities through innovative health initiatives, educational
programming, and a record ten-year sustainable revenue growth of
the Regional Parks Foundation, the private fundraising nonprofit
that improves Regional Park access for underserved communities,
and communities of color.
“Bob lives conservation,” said Save Mount Diablo Conservation
Director Seth Adams. “During his years at the Park District, protected
acres at the District have more than doubled, and public lands in the
East Bay as a whole have more than tripled.”
“John Muir is the East Bay’s most famous conservationist, but much of
his work was elsewhere,” Adams added. “Bob Doyle has been the most
effective environmentalist in the history of the East Bay, with a greater
positive impact on the physical geography than any other individual.”
Growing up in Concord, Doyle spent endless outdoor time as a kid
exploring the open spaces around him, especially Mount Diablo,
Diablo Foothills, and the land that is now Black Diamond Mines
Regional Park. His first contribution to the environmental movement
began in 1970 during the nation’s first-ever Earth Day, where he
organized his high school’s participation and activities. Doyle then
went on to become one of the founding board members of Save
Mount Diablo in 1971.
During his four decades spent at the Park District, Doyle has held
many instrumental roles. His unique journey from Park Ranger
to General Manager included many significant positions along the
way. His first leadership position came in 1979 when then-General-
Manager Richard Trudeau tapped him to lead the District’s efforts to
create a Regional Trail System connecting its parks. Today, regional
trails in the East Bay are likely the most used trails in the Park District,
providing environmentally friendly modes of transportation for
recreation and getting to work, school, or shopping areas.
A
Conservation and Park Management
Robert Doyle