Bob Croft grew up in Los Angeles and San Diego, California, and moved to Phoenix during high school; he’s lived in downtown Phoenix, in the F Q Story historic neighborhood, for some 25 years, He attended Saint Augustine’s High School in San Diego (surviving first year Latin), Phoenix Central High, and Arizona State University, studying political science, history and economics.

In 1974, Bob founded C B N Building Maintenance, a metro-wide commercial janitorial service focusing on health, environmental and indoor air quality concerns. He is one of five expert resources on indoor air quality in the US listed in the Building Service Contractors Association International’s directory and has been quoted extensively on environmental and indoor air quality issues in the Arizona Republic, and various trade publications, including BSCAI’s “Guide to Green Cleaning”. He served some 7 years on the City of Phoenix Environmental Quality Commission. Bob retired as President of CBN in August of 2023, but continues as President Emeritus” in an advisory capacity.

In his spare time, Bob’s been an arbitrator for the Better Business Bureau (holding a “Senior Arbitrator” designation from the National Panel of Consumer Arbitrators), was a (very) part time instructor in the music department at Scottsdale Community College, running the college trombone choir, and performs in the Salt River Brass Band, a 27 musician British style brass band that Bob co-founded in 1988 and managed until 2006 (catch their next season at the Mesa Arts Center). He’s a pretty fair bass trombone and euphonium player.

Bob has served on the F Q Story Preservation Association Steering Committee for longer than he can remember (4 terms as president), with involvement in such issues as street lighting and historic preservation, and the recent virtual Hometour. He chaired Story during the successful negotiations and lawsuit concerning the FAA’s re-routing of Sky Harbor’s flightpaths over central Phoenix. He has restored his 1926 bungalow in Story and the 1914 L. L. Steward House in the Roosevelt neighborhood, where CBN had its offices from 1996 to 2023. He supports Arizona’s Goldwater Institute, and the Salvation Army’s Phoenix Citadel.

And he reads a lot.

I authored my neighborhood’s FQ Story 2020 virtual home tour

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