In 1973, Bob Patkoff began his career in the bus industry as a baggage handler for an interstate bus company out of Dallas, Texas.

“Working in the bus business, you get to meet a lot of people,” Patkoff said. “I’ve driven the New York Yankees and met lots of folks, like the Zelles and Jesse Jackson.” He fondly remembers receiving a signed baseball from Reggie Jackson, a player with a reputation for not signing autographs.

After a brief break to study in college and serve in the Army, he returned to interstate busing. However, he was spending an average of 285 days away from home and his family. “It was too much time away,” he said. “So, I started to look for other jobs in other places, like Kansas City, Chicago, or Minneapolis-St. Paul.”

In 1987, he arrived in Minnesota, his birth state. Three years later, he began as a part-time operator for what was then known as the Metropolitan Transit Commission. Three years later, he became a relief dispatcher. In 2002, he earned a job as a full-time bus dispatcher, where he spent the bulk of his career. From 2016 to 2021, he worked in rail as a dispatcher.

For the last year of his career, he returned where he began: bus operations. “It’s my first and last job,” Patkoff said. “It’s been good to me.”

Patkoff retired in early 2022, after 32 years of service. In retirement, he and his wife plan to be “snowbirds,” splitting their time between Minnesota and Oklahoma, the state he was raised and has family and friends.