Bob attended Clarksville Elementary and High School, and was a member of the first Bluestone High School graduating class (1956).  He volunteered for the United States Marine Corps 4 weeks after high school graduation and was honorably discharged as a Sergeant in 1958.   Shortly thereafter he was invited to attend the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company’s Apprentice School (a school that has served over the years as the Shipyard’s Management Training ground offering a combination of classroom study coupled with craft training).  He served his craft apprenticeship as a pipefitter and still remembers well installing the compressed air and aircraft starting station piping on the U.S.S Enterprise (No, not Captain Kirk’s vessel but the first nuclear powered aircraft carrier).  Bob knows what it is like to earn a living by physical labor.

Bob graduated from NNS&DDCo Apprentice School in 1962 and worked his way up to become a Section Manager in Shipyard’s Industrial Engineering Department and in 1972 was transferred to the Offshore Power Systems Project in Jacksonville, Florida.  His Industrial Engineering experience centered on improving work methods and productivity.  He found, as many others have, that one of the first and most important steps to improving anything is seeking input from the people who actually are tasked with doing the work.

Bob joined Parsons Engineering, an Engineering/Construction firm, located in Pasadena, California in 1975 and worked with Parsons for 25 years as a Projects Controls Manager overseeing the Estimating, Scheduling and Cost Control for a number of  projects with budgets in excess of $100 million dollars each, including a Copper Plant in Iran, and several modular sea lifts to Prudhoe Bay where it was imperative that the work be completed in time to reach Alaska in the 4 to 6 weeks period between ice break up and refreezing.  The experience with Parsons gave Bob a great understanding and appreciation for “on-time, on-budget projects” and the need for timely reviews of progress, expenditures, forecasts, and workaround solutions.

Bob co-founded Prufrock Books (a rare and not-so-rare book shop) in Pasadena in 1979 that he operated until 1996.  Bob served as President of the Old Pasadena Community Association from 1980 to 1982 as “Old Pasadena” blossomed from an area of shuttered shops to one of Southern California’s most popular shopping and dining areas.   In 1997, Bob and  Mary converted the Book Shop into the Prufrock Gallery (next door to the historic Pasadena Playhouse) which they operated until they decided, in 2000, to return to Bob’s hometown of Clarksville.

Bob and Mary carted three truck loads of books from California to Clarksville and operated Wilkerson Books and Prints there from 2001 to 2006.  They also rescued a dilapidated Queen Anne house on Clarksville’s Virginia Avenue and converted it into a quite reputable (so some say) Cafe - the Mariposa Cafe.  They sold the Mariposa Cafe in September of 2006 and are currently working to renovate their 150-year-old farmhouse.

Bob ran for Mayor of Clarksville in 2004 and won.  He was unopposed in the 2006 Town election.  Bob stated that he ran for Mayor because he could see that a large number of  Clarksville’s citizens had no voice or representation in Town matters.  That same lack of representation has led Bob to run for the Virginia State Senate where he pledges to work diligently for all the 15th District citizens in Amherst, Appomattox, Brunswick, Buckingham , Charlotte, Cumberland, Fluvanna, Halifax, Lunenburg, Mecklenburg and Prince Edward counties.

Together Bob and Mary have four adult children: one son in Miami; one daughter in Gloucester, Virginia; and two daughters in Richmond, Virginia. 

"Thank you for taking a few minutes to read about Bob Wilkerson and why we believe he has the experience and knowledge to be the best choice for Senate for Virginia's 15th District."