potrero view
Photographs courtesy of Peter Linenthal

Photographs courtesy of Peter Linenthal

Hayes’ photograph of Enola Maxwell, the Potrero Hill Neighborhood House’s longtime director.

February 2010

Potrero Hill Neighborhood House Fixture Bob Hayes Created a Treasure Trove of Photographs

By Lori Higa

Photographer Bob Hayes, the indefatigable and unofficial "mayor of Potrero Hill," passed away on December 15 of natural causes at his Potrero Hill home.  After not hearing from Hayes the day before the Potrero Hill Neighborhood House’s (Nabe) annual holiday party, Edward Hatter,  Hayes’ good friend and Nabe’s executive director, discovered Hayes’ body upon entering his home.  Hayes had lived in his Southern Heights apartment for thirty five years, and worked with the Nabe in various capacities for thirty years, before retiring in 2002.  He would have turned 79 on January 12.

Born in Washington, D.C. and raised in North Carolina and the District, Hayes had a career in the United States Air Force and lived in Europe.  After retiring from the military, he worked in Hollywood movie factories as a still photographer. Hayes moved to San Francisco in the late 1960s, working as an electrocardiogram operator at Kaiser Permanente.  In love with the camera since he was a teenager, "Bob did a lot of private and professional photography," Hatter remarked.

"Bob taught generations of kids how to take, develop and print photographs at the Nabe," said Peter Linenthal, of the Potrero Hill Archives Project.  Many of Hayes' pictures of the people, places and events in Potrero Hill's colorful history populate the archive. Hatter, who considers Hayes family, recalled their first encounter.  “I’ve known Bob for 42 years. We met when I was seven years old at my great grandmother’s thrift shop, the Red Door, which was on the corner of Connecticut and 18th,” Hatter recalled. “At the time, he was living on the north side.  He migrated to the south side in ‘72, and with the Olivet Church, came to the Nabe.”

At the Nabe, Hayes was “chief cook, bottle washer, maintenance man, chauffeur...everything you could imagine,” Hatter explained. “Rarely riled by anything, soft spoken, he was opinionated and vocal, especially about City politics, and not ashamed to say what he thought.  Everybody loved him,” Hatter said.  “If you can see it in your mind’s eye, you can make it happen,” was one of Hayes’ characteristic sayings, according to Hatter.  The other was, “You have to tell people things at least three times before they get it.”

“Bob was a very talented guy, a considerate person, who cared greatly about the Hill’s community.  I had a lot of respect for him,” remembered Ruth Passen, the View’s long-time publisher, now retired.  Passen starting working with Hayes at the Nabe thirty seven years ago, when she, along with Hayes, became leading community activists alongside the legendary Enola Maxwell, Nabe’s first female and African-American director.  

“Among his many good works, Bob was a co-founder of the Food Bank down the Hill,” recalled Lonnie Ford, who also worked closely with Hayes while teaching theater arts to kids at the Nabe.  Ford described how he and Passen loved to tease Hayes, who was the opposite of namesake National Football League football and track star “Bullet” Bob Hayes.  “Bob was two gears, slow and stop,” Ford laughed. “We used to say ‘are you ready to go, Bob?’ whenever we were going somewhere.  Saying ‘Bob Hayes’ soon got to be our shorthand for ‘Are you ready to go?’”

“Bob was an anchor here at the Nabe.  He took care of all necessities for so many years.  I really came to rely on his judgment and experience.  He always came through with a nod of appreciation or a scolding.  He was an ambassador. Touched so many lives, raised so many of us, had photos of everybody and everything in the neighborhood. The community has lost a wonder,” Hatter lamented.  Hayes, who was the image of health, had a heart attack fifteen years ago.  He took the health crises as a wake-up call, driving him to become the “poster child for cardiac health,” an “avid juicer, and even, by God, a vegetarian,” Hatter said with a chuckle.

Hayes is survived by cousins in North Carolina, Canada and Los Angeles.  “Bob loved sailing,” said Hatter, “so we’re thinking we might scatter some of his ashes in the bay.”  A celebration of Hayes’ life was held on January 23 at the Nabe.

Subscribe to The Potrero View

All rights reserved. Copyright © 2006 The Potrero View.

Content on this site may not be archived, retransmitted, saved in a database, or used for any commercial purpose without the express written permission of The Potrero View or its Publishers.