OBITUARY
East Palo Alto’s Warrior Against Drug, Violence And Crime Dies In Stockton DECEMBER 17, 1936-FEBRUARY 20, 2020
R
everend Robert ‘Bob” Harley died in Stockton on February 20. He was 84 years old. A father of five, he was born on December 17, 1936 and grew up in Texas. A familiar figure to many in East Palo Alto before his relocation to Stockton, Reverend Hartley first hit the headlines in 1988 when he co-founded with the late Stephanie Smith an organization dedicated to fighting the rampant drug use in East Palo Alto. Community Organized for the Prevention and Eradication of drug use (C.O.P.E) was well-known for its anti-drug parades and activities including the belief that drug rehabilitation could be achieved through prayer and isolation. On one occasion, the organization sequestered two drug addicts, Chandra and Larry, in an empty building praying for them and comforting them as they went through violent withdrawal symptoms. Chandra and Larry were actually a couple who had abandoned their children due to their addiction. COPE reunited the family, arranged for a formal wedding of the couple, and provided the couple with a new home and a new start. Hartley eventually started a drug rehabilitation facility in a single-family residential home on Fordham Street that became known as C.O.P.E house. Not one to shy away from problems or causes, Hartley became a member of Pastors on Patrol, a group of ministers who went out to crime hot spots to get those suspected of involvement in crime to turn their lives over to God. In addition, Hartley became known for his twenty-four-hour vigils at public locations dedicated to sensitizing the
10 MAY 2020 EL RAVENSWOOD
Chandra and Larry Arnold, the first clients of at their C.O.P.E. coordinated wedding. community about street violence. In 1991, the year before East Palo Alto being known for its per capita homicide rate, he held a vigil lasting 27 days to raise the community’s consciousness against violence. In 2004, at the age of 66 and serving as an associate pastor at the Church of God in Christ, he held another round the clock vigil lasting five days, at the roadside memorial on East Bayshore Road for Jaiel Sims, a 23-year-old man shot and killed February 29, East Palo Alto’s first homicide that year. Hundreds of residents joined him for the candlelight vigils. Hartley had always wanted to rally religious leaders and encourage them to speak out in the hope that their collective voice would defuse
the seemingly endless volatile street situation in East Palo Alto. “A lot of it is just making a presence, being out talking with these young men, helping them understand drugs and other forms of hostility aren’t the way to go,” he was quoted as saying in a San Francisco Chronicle interview. “When I came to East Palo Alto in 2003, he was one of the first pastors to call me to engage me in initiatives to stem the rampant violence in the community,” said Father Larry Goody of St. Francis of Assisi Catholic church. “That anti-violence work led us to establish a Boys Club facility within the church’s premises,” He added The club still exists and serves both boys and girls.
