Bob Kirkwood
American businessman (1939-2017)
Bob Kirkwood (June 17, 1939 - December 10, 2017) was an American environmentalist and businessman. Kirkwood was born in San Francisco, California, on June 17, 1939, the eldest son of California politician Robert C. Kirkwood.
Kirkwood was a graduate of Pomona College and Harvard Law School. After two years in Japan working for a law firm, he returned to San Francisco, where he practiced law at Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison. Kirkwood then worked at Hewlett-Packard for 25 years, retiring as Director of Government and Education Affairs. Working with David Packard, Kirkwood designed and initiated the creation of the Santa Clara Manufacturing Group, a collaboration of industry and local governments that has evolved into the Silicon Valley Leadership Group.
Kirkwood served as a board contributor to many civic and environmental organizations including Peninsula Open Space Trust, the California Advisory Board of the Trust for Public Land, SPUR, POST, Sempervirens, Planning and Conservation League Foundation, and the Northern Sierra Partnership. In the 1990s, he was a member and chairman of the California Coastal Conservancy and in 2005 he was the governor's appointee to the newly created Sierra Nevada Conservancy.
Kirkwood also pursued funding both environmental and childhood development issues working through his family foundation.
Kirkwood died on December 10, 2017, in Palo Alto, California.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Bob Kirkwood” as american businessman (1939-2017). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as american businessman (1939-2017). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4933042. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1939, 2017 and 2005.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Bob Kirkwood”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Bob Kirkwood primary sources, Bob Kirkwood archive and Kirkwood research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Bob Kirkwood”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Bob Kirkwood” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.