‘Liz’ Bobo, Maryland’s first female county executive and environmental advocate, surprised by dedication

Elizabeth “Liz” Bobo was surprised in June when she learned County Executive Calvin Ball had named two baseball fields at Centennial Park West in her honor. What surprised her wasn’t the dedication itself, but the fact that the fields had synthetic surfaces made of AstroTurf.

Bobo was Maryland and Howard’s first female county executive. She’s also a staunch environmentalist who, she recalled, lost a re-election bid because she stood up to developers. To Bobo, environmentalism and AstroTurf don’t mix. She’s also not a big baseball fan.

As a result, Bobo asked Ball to change the dedication, a request that will be honored. Recreation and Parks Director Nick Mahooney said in a statement that Ball “remains committed” to honoring Bobo’s “lifetime of service to our community and her dedication to Centennial Park.”

“We will work directly with Mrs. Bobo to find an appropriate way to honor her contributions,” Mahooney added.

The request to change the dedication is an example of Bobo staying true to herself.

“I think it’s important for all of us, human beings, in all areas of our life, whether it’s our personal life or our working life, to deal with integrity,” Bobo said. “I don’t think there’s any way to get away from that, and so, that’s what I did.”

Where it all began

Bobo, who lives in Columbia, had two children with her first husband, Clifford Bobo. Her family has since expanded to include grandchildren and great-grandchildren — Bobo’s first grandchild is now about 18 months old, she said.

Bobo studied literature at the University of Maryland in the 1960s. She credits her interest in the subject to her mother, who she fondly remembers curling up with a book and sometimes a cup of coffee or a beer.

“She’d be chuckling and laughing,” Bobo said. “I mean, she just loved her books.”

Once Bobo became interested in public policy, she went back to school to study law and soon after passed the bar. In 1977, she was appointed to the Howard County Council, where she met her current husband, Lloyd Knowles, who also served as a council member.

Bobo and Knowles have traveled to about 53 countries together, Knowles said, including some in Africa and Europe. The pair also went on a safari, requiring them to sleep in a tent with lions nearby.

“We must’ve been crazy,” Bobo said.

The pair doesn’t travel as much as they used to, Bobo said, instead opting to stay close to home and near family. Bobo loves to read poetry, and works by Joyce Carol Oates and John Steinbeck.

Bobo also likes to talk on occasion to her first grandchild, Zachary, who died from brain cancer at the age of 19. She talks to Zachary when there’s something troubling her. He had a profound impact on a lot of people and took care of everybody around him, even while he was dying, Bobo said.

“When I was young, I really believed in saints. Well, I haven’t believed in that kind of thing for a long time,” she said. “But I do believe Zachary had some kind of … he was just an amazing human being.”

A more than 30-year policy career in the making

Right after being sworn in as Howard County’s first — and so far, only — female county executive in the 1980s, Bobo drove to Baltimore City for a meeting with other county executives and Baltimore’s mayor.

After the meeting, the other executives all wanted to drive Bobo home, recalled Knowles. Bobo insisted on driving herself, Knowles said, but the valet had engaged the hand brake, something Bobo didn’t typically do. In trying to release the brake, she accidentally popped the hood of the car.  Once someone slammed the hood shut, she drove off, Bobo said.

“None of them ever mentioned it again,” said Bobo, who laughed while noting that she was the only woman at the meeting. “When the county executives got together, I participated as much as any of them and knew as much as any of them, and none of them ever mentioned it to me.”

Bobo championed environmental, social and economic justice in her more than 30-year career as county executive, a Howard County Council member and state delegate. While she was executive, Howard earned its first triple-A bond rating. She also helped develop Centennial Park, which now hosts a variety of sports fields, nature trails and workout spaces.

But to her, it was all about maintaining the environment and protecting the Earth, values that sometimes caused her to butt heads with developers.

“I didn’t happen to study much about the environment, but I knew that the Earth’s precious,” Bobo said. “When you tear up by the streams, and cut down trees all over the place, and all the mud runs into the streams, I just knew that was not good.”

To Ball, Howard’s current executive, Bobo served as a trailblazer. He said she showed the “tenacity that it takes to break ground on being the first” female county executive, while also working to be “an effective public servant.”

“Anytime that you’re the first of anything, there are people who will question your competence and your dedication,” Ball said. “Continuing to move a community forward is critically important. She has the expertise, and she has inspired so many.”

Looking forward

Each cream-colored wall in Bobo’s home features artwork, including mosaic-tiled pieces and paintings.Each piece has a small, square piece of paper on it with the title of the work and the name of the artist, indicating that Bobo and Knowles know the work’s creator.

“We’ve pretty much run out of wall,” Knowles said as he gazed at their living room.

The art forms its own personalized gallery. When he was a County Council member, Knowles proposed a bill that ensured all money for the arts in Howard County went directly to the Howard County Arts Council, rather than political figures who would decide how to divide the money. The bill passed.

To Bobo, studying and being involved in the arts and liberal arts is a way to “feed our souls.” Some of the works on their walls depict scenes in Howard County, including Main Street in Ellicott City. But Bobo doesn’t consider herself an art collector — she just loves having them around, she said.

Bobo said she’s excited to be living in Columbia with her husband, where she can enjoy the beauty of nature and her family. She’s excited to spend more time with Knowles, who she said she never gets tired of being around. For Knowles, the feeling is mutual.

“I’m just in awe of Liz’s intelligence level and it’s been a real pleasure these many years, having such a wonderful mind about her. I can talk to her about almost anything,” Knowles said. “And she doesn’t bother me when I watch baseball.”

Bobo laughed.

She and Knowles encourage people to stay involved with their local elected officials and pay attention to national happenings.

“I wish I knew how to do more to encourage more people to pay close attention to what their government is doing,” Bobo said.