Missoula residents and colleagues gathered at the Moon Randolph Homestead to honor Bob Oakes, a longtime North Side organizer whose work with the North Missoula Community Development Corporation and community land trusts helped shape neighborhood housing, parks and civic programs.

The event, organized by Front Step Community Land Trust, combined personal stories and organizational tributes and included storytellers, live music and an on-site recorder to capture memories for a community archive. Organizers asked attendees to visit a recording cabin so memories could be preserved.

Why it matters: Oakes helped found and lead neighborhood initiatives that speakers said produced lasting changes in North Missoula, from housing projects to community events. Rachel Bemis, former board president of the North Missoula Community Development Corporation (NMCDC), said Oakes “was known as a passionate community member” and described how his work helped people access homeownership and influenced her own decade of service on the NMCDC board.

Speakers emphasized examples of Oakes’s impact. Bemis recounted meeting Oakes at a Clark Fork Commons townhome tour and later closing her first home in August 2006 as a result of NMCDC programs. Mike Barton, a longtime friend and former colleague, recalled Oakes’s role in projects across the North Side — citing pedestrian infrastructure, playgrounds, community gardens, and local businesses — and called him “the North Side’s most ardent lover.”

Dawn Conklin, director of Trust Montana, said Oakes continued to promote community land trust work statewide; she described meeting Oakes at conferences and at a Missoula Marathon outreach table where he volunteered two hours to represent Trust Montana.

Former NMCDC staff member Molly Moody read remarks and other submitted tributes that highlighted long-running neighborhood campaigns, including efforts to keep Lowell School open and to develop public green spaces. Speakers repeatedly framed Oakes’s work as a mix of organizing, event-building and place-making: examples cited included Clark Fork Commons, the North Side overpass campaign and outreach that connected residents to affordable homeownership through land-trust models.

The gathering mixed personal anecdotes with organizational context rather than producing formal actions or policy directions. Jerry, who emceed and identified himself as having worked with Oakes for 14 years at NMCDC and now at Front Step Community Land Trust, asked attendees to record memories for archival use and explained there would be opportunities to speak publicly during the celebration.

Clarifying details offered at the event: Bemis said she served 10 years on the NMCDC board; Jerry described his 14-year working relationship with Oakes; Barton recalled meeting Oakes at Boston College about 60 years earlier and said Oakes moved back to Missoula in the early 1980s; Conklin described Oakes volunteering two hours at the Missoula Marathon booth during a recent June trip. One speaker said a small staff once raised more than $1 million to set up a project, but specific funder names and timelines were not provided during remarks.

No statutes, ordinances or formal municipal actions were proposed or approved at the event. The program was a remembrance and oral-history gathering; speakers urged continued civic work but did not record any board motions or policy directions. Organizers noted that recordings collected by Mark Moss of Tell Us Something would be used to preserve stories.

The event closed with bands and further informal storytelling. Organizers encouraged attendees to continue sharing memories in the recording cabin and at future community events related to NMCDC and local land-trust work.