The Rotarian of the Week says the best thing about Rotary is the impact it makes locally and in the world, and of the things we think, say and do this person said that “Will it be beneficial to all concerned” has had the biggest impact in their life. Their most memorable Rotary experiences include the Adaptive Bike project, the Children of the Dump project brought to our Rotary club by Bob Womack, and when serving on the Program Committee hosting Liz Cheney because it was the first time she had spoke in public following January 6th attack on the Capitol. Not only is this Rotarian a past president, they also served on the program committee for 8 years, 5 as the chair. Their first job at age 15 was working at a children’s clothing store called Jack and Jill. This CSU Ram alum (pause for disappointment) majored in Cultural Anthropology with a minor in Business. Prior to attending CSU, the Rotarian of the Week was a Grand Junction High School Tiger and graduated in a class of 565 students.
She was married 39 years and enjoys spending time with her children and grandchildren. Her oldest son, Ricky runs an acting company that provides educational theater across the world, her middle son, Ryan, is a pathologist who has 2 daughters, and her daughter, Becky is a PhD Chemist who teaches at the college level. Beyond her family her proudest accomplishment is being a lawyer, specifically the work done with restorative justice courts like DUI Court and VA Court.
Roberta Coates knew she wanted to be a lawyer, but believed it was not possible because she was a female. Then her senior year in college the University of Wyoming Law School began accepting more women. In her class 12 of the 75 students were female. She was part of the first class at UW which had more than 3 women!! At the time she was in law school there was something known as Women’s Day - sounds like something to celebrate, right? Not so much! Roberta explained that most of the time the males in her classes were first to be called on and expected to answer the questions, but on women’s day ONLY the women would be called on. As soon as the women figured out “today is the day” they passed the word to their fellow female students. One would assume that Women’s Day only happened once a year - well, you’d be wrong. It happened multiple times each year.
When she graduated from law school Roberta clerked for the Honorable James E Barrett of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit and worked for Legal Services of Southeast Wyoming. She was appointed to the First Circuit Court in Laramie County by former Governor Dave Freudenthal in September 2004, and retired from the bench in December 2014.
She learned about Rotary primarily because the judges she appeared in front of would have their calendars clear at the same time each week to attend Rotary meetings. Roberta was sponsored by Dr. Meuli and attended Rotary with her husband Doug until his passing six years ago. In addition to traveling, spending time with her family and her three book clubs, Roberta finds the most joy in nature and enjoys hiking, road biking, downhill skiing, cross country skiing and snowshoeing, and is learning how to mountain bike! Once a runner, she had to change up her mode of exercise after she had an accident in the Savage Run Wilderness area which took 17 hours to be moved from the area for medical care.
Her favorite meal is chicken cacciatore with homemade cavatelli, garlic cheese bread and German chocolate cake. She makes her own cavatelli, which is a potato dumpling pasta, and her own marinara sauce!
