Bob DuPont Retires After 34 Years of State Service

Had a letter from home gone to the correct recipient, there might never have been a Bob DuPont – safety building code visionary extraordinaire. Fortunately for him, encouraging letters from nursing students who belonged to a church in Fond du Lac were distributed to the hometown troops stationed overseas during Word War II. However, the fellow whose name was on the envelope of one of them told his buddy and fellow soldier Robert DuPont that he could open and read it. Apparently the fellow already had a girlfriend, or just plain wasn't interested.

And so, the young soldier from Green Bay read the cheery letter of encouragement from one Miss Dolores Stoffel, nursing student, Fond du Lac. And he was smitten. The two began a pen pal relationship that blossomed into a wedding when Robert was discharged.

The couple married, settled in, and being the good Catholics they were, began welcoming as many children as the Lord would bless them with – which ended up being an even dozen.

As one of those twelve siblings, Bob DuPont was born right smack dab in the middle – or as close to the middle as you can be. His older brother was number three in the DuPont brood, with two sisters preceding him and two following.

It was time for another boy, they reckoned, and when Robert Gerard DuPont was born to Dolores and Robert DuPont of Milwaukee it started a trend that would eventually leave the family evenly distributed – six girls and six boys.

It's no surprise then, that by the time Bob hit school (he graduated from Greenfield High School in 1973) he already had a head start in learning to get along with other people, the arts of compromise and patience – ah, patience. Being one of a dozen siblings, patience is indeed a virtue.

Fortunately, compromise and patience play a role in the world of work as well, and as someone who has worked in the public sector for nearly 35 years, Bob and patience have become somewhat synonymous. Even tempered with a sly sense of humor, Bob worked his way through the ranks of the state's building safety regulatory ranks, earning the respect of colleagues and co-workers, and being given more and more management responsibility along the way.

After high school, Bob attended the Milwaukee School of Engineering , graduating in 1975. Armed with a degree in Architectural and Building Construction Engineering Technology – and a new bride (Bob married his high school sweetheart, Deb, immediately after graduating) Bob began working as a plumbing plan reviewer for the state.

Over the next 34 years, he moved from plumbing plan review (he is a certified plumbing designer) to licensing and product review, then Director of the Bureau of Building Water Systems to his final state career position as the Director of the Bureau of Program Development at the Department of Commerce (Commerce), a position he has held since 1996. And now, he's decided it's time to move on. September 26 was his last day at Commerce.

"Bob has provided a tremendous service to the Division of Safety and Buildings for over three decades," says Building & Safety Division Administrator, and Bob's supervisor, Greg Jones. "He's helped Wisconsin's regulatory approach to building construction to be more positive and proactive. His contributions will become more evident as time passes."

Bob's contributions over the years were numerous – some the result of many, many years of planning, preparation and work.

In the early 1990's he was involved with division-wide strategic planning during which time he encouraged increased focus on the needs of the division's customers. Streamlining processes and procedures was always foremost in Bob's mind. He built – literally - two houses with his wife Deb. He jokes that if anyone doubted the staying power of their young marriage, everyone became believers after the pair survived those experiences. He adds, however, that the house they currently occupy was built by someone else. He knew the hoops necessary for obtaining plan approvals and permits.

He spent years - six, to be precise - working on adopting the International Building code for Wisconsin which resulted in the Commercial Building Code of 2002.

Having helped wrap up the sprinkler code for multi-family dwellings in 2008 and seeing the implementation of the state's new building contractor registration system in 2009, Bob determined it was time to move on.

Looking back over the years he says that he found the most effective way to manage people was through "Trust and understanding." He has no illusions that the Building & Safety Division will cease to function following his departure.

"I started developing codes in 1984," Bob muses, "but someone was doing the same thing for 100 years before I got here!"

While he doubts that the department will skip a beat (someone once told him that if anyone ever wonders what kind of hole they will leave, it's like "pulling your hand out of a bucket of water and seeing how fast the impression fills in,") his colleagues know better. Bob has been described as a "visionary" and a "big picture" thinker – and someone that will not soon be forgotten.

While he's looking forward to spending more time with his family – which includes Deb and their grown children Ben, 29, Kristin, 27 and Rochelle, 22 – he acknowledges that he isn't ready for full-time retirement. Consequently, he will be starting his own consulting firm – Regulatory Guidance and Design, LLC – advising those in the construction industry about everything to do with building safe, secure structures. He certainly has had a bit of experience!

-- Barbro McGinn