Love of people started Columbine Health Systems

FORT COLLINS – One-time Iowa farm boy Bob Wilson turned a love of helping older people and a big dollop of vision and luck into a successful network of elderly services called Columbine Health Systems.

And it’s a formula that’s been chugging along smoothly for 40 years.

“It amazes me it’s been 40 years,” says Wilson, 64, who now sits at the head of a 22-business system that includes nursing homes, assisted-care centers, independent-living centers, home health care and medical equipment, to name just a few.

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Wilson said his story started back on the farm in the 1960s, when he would sit on a tractor all day plowing a field and feel isolated from the world.

“I knew I wanted to be around people all the time, so this was a natural,” he said.

Wilson moved to Fort Collins in the late 1960s to attend Colorado State University, a decision that had an unexpected result: He soon dropped out.

“It was the ’60s, and I didn’t last a year,” he recalled with a laugh. Needing a job, he was hired in 1970 as a maintenance worker at Columbine East nursing home.

It was a job he immediately liked. “I really enjoyed the residents, doing stuff for them,” he said.

Wilson’s timing could not have been better. The nursing home was slipping toward bankruptcy, and six months after he was hired to fix handrails and hang doors he had become the facility’s chief administrator.

After Columbine East went into bankruptcy in 1971, Wilson leased it from the bank and later purchased it. He was on his way to eventually becoming the area’s largest private employer, going from 30 employees in 1971 to more than 1,350 today.

Wilson said the growth of Columbine Health Systems had no particular plan.

“People have asked me if I had a grand plan. Not really,” he said. “It’s been just a piece at a time, kind of just reading the next direction in health care.”

Prime real estate

One bit of luck came along in 1988 when he had the chance to buy what’s become some prime real estate along Centre Avenue in the heart of Fort Collins.

“I bought it a piece at a time from the Everitt Cos.,” he said. “They’re really quite responsible for me being a success over here.”

Four years after Steele’s Market on West Drake Road closed, Wilson decided to buy the Market Centre building. He turned it into a multi-use facility for both the public and his employees in 2005. He opened Café Columbine and Bakery and the Drake Centre event venue, bringing new life back to the area.

Recently, Wilson leased a portion of the former Steele’s building to Paul Pellegrino and All Occasions Catering, who plans to convert the space into a restaurant and lounge and continue the Drake Centre meeting hall.

Wilson said his move into a café and bakery business was “probably inappropriate diversification on my part,” even though he noted Columbine Health Systems prepares and serves more than 3,000 meals each day to its 1,200 residents.

“Somebody else needs to do it,” Wilson said of operating a public eating establishment.

Wilson said he’s happy to be part of the health-care field but bemoans a lack of political direction in the wake of federal health care reform.

“We need some direction, some leadership,” he said, noting that both parties are part of the problem. That means he has no plans at the moment to further grow Columbine.

“I decided about two years ago I’d put the brakes on,” he said. “I’m like many business people. Until we see something positive, I’m sitting on my hands.”

Wilson said he still enjoys what he does and being around older people, including his mother, Stella, who – at 95 years old – runs Columbine’s uniform department.

“It’s a pretty good way to earn a living,” he said. “My company’s at a size that we have some extremely talented people helping me run it. And at the end of the day, we’re taking care of people and not just building widgets.”

Wilson said he has no plans to retire anytime soon and may even be around to celebrate Columbine’s 50th anniversary.

“I hope so,” he said, adding with a chuckle, “I’m sure my mom will still be there.”

Steve Porter covers health care for the Northern Colorado Business Report. He can be reached at 970-232-3147 or at sporter@ncbr.com.