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Rob Brandes - our 2026-2027 President
Born 1970 in Fresno California. We moved to Grants Pass in spring of 1974, my dad had finished medical residency and took a job with the Grants Pass Clinic. My brother was born shortly after we got here. Grew up on Sandy Drive, NW part of town, fantastic block. There were about a million kids our age to play with. Josh Welch actually moved in a few years after us.
Went to Highland Elementary, then North Middle. Prototypical childhood – walking to school and back with buddies, always games of touch football, wiffleball, kick-the-can going on on our street. We had a pool, which was always busy in the summers, also had a large covered-patio roof conveniently over one end of the pool.
High school was GPHS. I did band for a couple years and played tennis a couple years. My ‘high school’ job was working at Drive-N-Save, grocery store in what is now the Dollar Tree at 6th and Manzanita. Great job, working grocery beat the heck out of fast food! Graduated in 1988.
Went to college at Oregon State, started in Engineering, that lasted about 1 term. Briefly considered pre-dental/pre-med, nope. Settled on Business, with emphasis on Finance, minored in Poly-Sci. Graduated undergrad in 1993, and turned around and went right into Masters program. Finished with Masters in Business Administration in Dec. 1994. Also worked 3 summers for Josephine County doing Engineering/Surveying work.
Briefly considered moving to Portland, with an eye on going into health-care-related field, but didn’t like the idea of big city. Moved to Grants Pass early 1995 and initially worked at Evergreen Federal in Loan Dept. County Public Works had an opening as an Accounting Tech. pop-up, and I already knew quite a few of the people there, so hung up my short-lived banking career.
Worked briefly at Public Works, and a entry-level manager position opened at Finance. I went to the Courthouse, survived the 1997 budget process with a buddy who was also brand-new as Finance Director. Public Works then ‘absorbed’ County Fleet and Building Operations, my former boss asked me to come back out and help set-up their new cost accounting system. I jumped at the chance, and have been there (almost) ever since.
I started dating Shelly Morrow in 1998, a fellow 1988 GPHS alumni. We got engaged in summer of 1999 and married early 2000. Cade was born in 2004 and Callie in 2008. Also had the greatest dog in the history of the world – Sydney, a yellow lab.
I was promoted to Public Works Director in February 2006. I was the first non-engineer to be in that position, as it was transitioning to more purely administrative functions. Survived countless winter storms, budget emergencies and all manner of Commissioner.
2025, I was let go without cause, worked a couple of short-term gigs with City of Gold Hill and then Southern Oregon Sanitation. More recently, I returned to the County in June of 2026 and couldn’t be happier.
Shelly and I have been married 26 years, and have lived on Dewey Drive (2 different houses) the entire time. Shelly has been a schoolteacher for 30+ years, and is 2nd Grade at Allen Dale. Both our kids are now attending Oregon State, Cade in Accounting and Callie in Education.
In our free time, we like attend Beaver football games, and now track meets for Callie; pretty much any GPHS sports. I’ve hung up the rec league basketball/soccer/softball shoes, but we do watch Cade play soccer and hoop during the summers. We do some travelling, hopefully more now that my job fun has calmed down, and the kids are settled in their school routines! We’ve got a big garden and a bunch of fruit trees and berry bushes. Our street is pretty quiet, which we love, and all our neighbors are really easy-going. Both sets of our parents are here in town, so we are able to get together often with them as well.
I’ve really enjoyed my time in our club, and as everyone probably knows, the Track Meet is my personal favorite thing we do! Looking forward to my year as pres, we’ve got a very supportive Board and a lot of institutional knowledge!
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