HONORING THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF MR. ROBERT "BOB" HUTCHINSON, SR.

On 2026-08-03, Representative Sanford D. Bishop, Jr. (D-GA-2) delivered a floor speech titled "HONORING THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF MR. ROBERT "BOB" HUTCHINSON, SR." in the House.

HONORING THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF MR. ROBERT "BOB" HUTCHINSON, SR.

Congressional Record, Volume 172 Issue 126 (Monday, August 3, 2026) [Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 126 (Monday, August 3, 2026)] [Extensions of Remarks] [Page E766] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] HONORING THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF MR. ROBERT ``BOB'' HUTCHINSON, SR. ______ HON. SANFORD D. BISHOP, JR. of georgia in the house of representatives Monday, August 3, 2026 Mr. BISHOP. Mr. Speaker, I rise today with a heavy heart to honor a man who spent his whole life mending the hearts of others--Mr. Robert ``Bob'' Hutchinson, Sr., who was called home to glory on Wednesday, July 22, 2026, at the age of 77, in the city he loved and served for so long, Albany, Georgia. There are homes across Southwest Georgia tonight where the light seems a little dimmer, because a man who spent his life turning the lights on for children has finally laid down his own. A homegoing service to celebrate his remarkable life was held on Saturday, August 1, 2026, at Mount Zion Baptist Church in Albany, Georgia. Bob was born on July 19, 1949, in Ocala, Florida, to the late Clemm and Ethlene Blakely Hutchinson. He answered a calling early and never once stopped serving. After graduating from high school in 1967, he enlisted in the United States Army and gave to his country the same devotion he would later give to a generation of children who needed him more than they had words to say. For more than forty-five years, Bob made a quiet holy promise to every child who crossed his path--that no matter where they came from, no matter what they carried, they would have a safe place to belong, a mentor who believed in them, and a chance to become who God made them to be. His life's work found its home in Albany, at the Cedar Avenue Boys and Girls Club and there it grew into a legacy that touched an entire region. Rising to Director of Operations and ultimately to Chief Professional Officer, Bob led the Boys and Girls Clubs of Albany and from three locations to eleven, until more than five thousand young people were being loved, fed, taught, and lifted every single day. He planted Club sites in schools, in churches, in housing communities-- anywhere a hurting child might be--because he could not bear the thought of one boy or one girl being too far from a hand that would reach for them. And in 1995, he flung the doors open to girls as well, because in Bob's heart there was not one child on this earth who did not deserve to be believed in. The world gave Bob its honors, and they were many--Leadership Albany, the Law Day USA Liberty Bell Award, the Herman Prescott Award, the David Roark Light the Path Award, and in 2016, induction into the Georgia Boys and Girls Club Hall of Fame. He earned every one. But Mr. Speaker, I stand here to testify that Bob Hutchinson's name is written in a greater Hall of Fame than any this world can offer. The eleventh chapter of Hebrews records what the saints have long called the Hall of Faith--God's own roll call of the faithful. By faith Abraham. By faith Moses. By faith Sarah. These are the men and women who, Scripture says, ``all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off.'' And of one of them the Word says something that could have been written for Bob Hutchinson himself: ``he being dead yet speaketh.'' Mr. Speaker, that is Bob. He is gone from us--but he is not silent. He still speaks. He speaks every time a child he mentored chooses hope over despair. He speaks every time a young man who had no father remembers the man who chose to father him anyway. He speaks in ten thousand lives, and he will go on speaking long after every one of us in this Chamber has been forgotten. You do not measure a man like Bob by buildings or by plaques. You measure him by the frightened child who walked through a Club door with his head down and walked back out with his head up. You measure him by the boys and girls--now grown into teachers, ministers, business owners, mothers, and fathers--who still cannot speak his name without their voices breaking. Somewhere tonight there is a grown man who learned to tie his shoes, to shake a hand, to look another person in the eye, because Bob Hutchinson took the time. That man will carry Bob with him to his own grave, and hand him to his children after that. This is the true Hall of Fame--the one written not in bronze, but in the living hearts of the people he refused to give up on. Through all of it, beside this remarkable man stood the love of his life, his devoted wife of fifty-five years, Lula Peterson Hutchinson. Fifty-five years. Through every trial and every triumph, she never let go of his hand. Together they raised three children--Rodney, Michelle, and Robert, Jr.--and were blessed with four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. And among the countless he fathered was his devoted protege, Marvin Laster, who loved him not as a supervisor but as a daddy. When a man's employees weep for him like sons, they have learned everything they will ever need to know about how he lived. Mr. Speaker, the Scripture says we are surrounded by ``so great a cloud of witnesses.'' Bob Hutchinson has taken his place in that number now. And so, on behalf of Georgia's 2nd Congressional District, I ask my colleagues to join my wife Vivian and me, along with the more than 765,00 people of Georgia's 2nd Congressional District in mourning his loss and celebrating his life. To Lula, to his children, grandchildren, and to the countless sons and daughters of Southwest Georgia who called him family--we grieve with them, and we thank God for the gift of him. Rest now, Bob. Well done, good and faithful servant. He has fought a good fight, he has finished his course, he has kept the faith--and generations yet unborn will rise up and call him blessed. ____________________