Papers of Gregory J. Hobbs, Jr.

A leading expert on Colorado water law, Colorado Supreme Court Justice Gregory J. Hobbs, Jr., practiced environmental, land use, transportation, and water law for more than two decades before his appointment to the bench. Justice Hobbs conveyed his expertise not only on the state's highest court, but also through his extensive publications, presentations, and professional and community service.

Gregory James Hobbs, Jr., was born in Florida in 1944, the first of his Irish Catholic parents' five children. With an Air Force father, the family moved frequently, including to North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Panama, Virginia, Alaska, California, and Texas. Family, church, and school engaged and influenced young Greg as did his involvement in the Boy Scouts. He first joined while in Alaska and fully embraced the scouting life, the outdoors, and its lessons, becoming an Eagle Scout in 1959. In 1960, he attended the National Jamboree in Colorado Springs and soon spent his summers working at the Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico. He met Barbara Hay there in 1966, and the following year "Bobbie" and Greg married.

Hobbs earned his B.A. in history at the University of Notre Dame in 1966, with his sophomore year spent at St. Joseph's Seminary. After Notre Dame, he attended Columbia University to study Latin American history before deciding to join the Peace Corps. Following their 1967 wedding, the newlyweds went to Colombia for service. The couple returned in 1968 and had their first child, son Daniel. Daughter Emily followed in 1971.

Hobbs spent these early years of family life in law school at the University of California, Berkeley, completing his degree in 1971. He then clerked for Judge William E. Doyle of the Tenth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver for a year before briefly returning to California. In 1973, the Hobbs family returned to Denver for good. Hobbs worked for the newly formed U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for nearly two years and then the Natural Resources Section of the Colorado Attorney General's Office for almost four. At both organizations, he worked on environmental law, aimed at cleaning up polluted water and air, including Denver's "brown cloud." He concluded his time at the Attorney General's Office as special prosecutor and acting director of the Medicaid Fraud Unit.

Hobbs entered private practice as a partner at the law firm Davis, Graham and Stubbs in 1979. Soon he became principal counsel to the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District (NCWCD), a major water supplier for the region. In 1992, Hobbs and two other partners left Davis, Graham and Stubbs to establish their own firm of Hobbs, Trout and Raley, primarily to serve NCWCD.

In 1996, Hobbs' ambition of higher service was fulfilled with an appointment to the Colorado Supreme Court. There, he brought his water law expertise to important state-level cases. Including water decisions, he authored more than 250 majority opinions for the court in civil and criminal cases. In 2008, Hobbs chaired the Water Court Committee, assessing the state's water court process and making recommendations to achieve efficiencies. He retired from the court in 2015.

Throughout his career, Hobbs was active in the community and his profession. He served on numerous committees related to the environment, water, air quality, and transportation, along with extensive Boy Scout service. He also served as vice president for the Colorado Foundation for Water Education and a co-convener of the Water Judges' Educational Project, Dividing the Waters. He taught numerous water law workshops and college courses, and after retirement from the bench was Distinguished Jurist in Residence and Co-Director, Environmental and Natural Resources Law Program, at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, as well as a Senior Water Judge for the Colorado courts, assigned to the mediation of water cases.

Hobbs also published widely and presented frequently, with expertise, eloquence, and humor. He authored numerous articles, essays, poems, and books, among the latter being: In Praise of Fair Colorado: The Practice of Poetry, History and Judging (2004); Colorado Mother of Rivers, Water Poems(2005); The Public's Water Resource: Articles on Water Law, History, and Culture (2007); Living the Four Corners: Colorado, Centennial State at the Headwaters (2010); and Into the Grand (2012). These and other writings and interviews found in this collection are the best biographical sources on Justice Hobbs, who passed away in November 2021.