Candidate for
Treasurer; County of Hamilton

http://www.bobdrake.org

Dr. Bob Drake grew up with a passion for politics and an appreciation for the value of money earned through hard work and personal sacrifice. Like most people, Bob's childhood experiences helped mold him into the kind of person he is today -- compassionate toward those less fortunate, yet fiscally conservative.

"When I was a child, my mother and grandmother used to let me keep the change when we'd go to the store," says Bob. "They'd give me whatever coins were left over, and I would take them home and save them in a cardboard box. Before long, I had 20 dollars. When my mom saw how much I had, she took it from me. I guess she didn't think a five-year-old needed that much cash. I was a little upset, as you might imagine."

As a child, Bob lived with his mother and grandparents. Shortly after Bob was born in 1953, his father died. To make ends meet, Bob and his mother moved in with his maternal grandparents near the town of Mooresville, Indiana. Their small farmhouse had electricity, but little else. There was no indoor plumbing, and the only heat during the frigid Hoosier winters came from an old-fashioned coal-fired stove. Bob passed the time by reading books.

"We weren't poor in the way that people are poor today," says Bob. "My grandparents grew their own food, so we were never hungry. But we weren't rich."

At age 11, Bob began earning money by mowing lawns for neighbors and loading hay wagons for local farmers. Later as a teenager, he worked as a church custodian, never forgetting the important lessons he had learned from his grandparents.

Bob played in a rock-and-roll band in high school. He later realized that he was a better mathematician than musician. "My grandparents were conservative with money," says Bob. "Having lived through the Depression, they were pretty frugal and I think a lot of that rubbed off on me. They taught me at an early age to be careful how you handle it and to invest wisely."

After graduating from Mooresville High School, Bob enrolled at Indiana University. With no financial support, he left the Bloomington campus, moving to Indianapolis to work while finishing his Bachelor of Science Degree in Education at Indiana University/Purdue University - Indianapolis in 1976. He continued his education at Indiana University in Bloomington, where he earned a Masters Degree in Mathematics Education. In 1987, Bob earned a Doctorate in Education in Curriculum & Instruction, Mathematics/Science Education from Indiana University.

During and after college, Bob held a variety of teaching jobs, primarily working with disadvantaged children, or mentally and physically disabled teenagers and adults. From 1977 through 1985, he taught mathematics in the public schools.