Bob Romero is a third-generation La Plata County resident and owner/proprietor of Rufe’s Paint Store. He was born at Mercy Hospital’s old location in 1957. His father, Rufe Jr., was born in Durango when the hospital was still the Gable House. Bob and his family have been fixtures in the community since his grandfather, Rufe Sr., worked at the uranium/vanadium mine at Smelter and later as foreman of the Federal Lumber Company. 
Rufe Jr. opened Rufe’s Paint Store in 1962 after cutting his teeth selling paint for Rufe Sr. at Federal Lumber Company. Bob said his store’s success is built on specific product knowledge, “dead nuts” color matching of stains and paints, and regional understanding of how those products react to our climate. His experience and reputation helped Rufe’s Paint Store weather the storm of the COVID-19 pandemic. As commerce and ordering supplies moved online, Bob credits his product and region-specific knowledge for keeping him afloat and allowing his business to bounce back more rapidly than others.
The most welcome, emerging dynamic of his brick-and-mortar reality has been the public’s return to valuing human interactions and relationships. Often, the online experience lacks authenticity and objective advice. With remote ordering, customers encounter order-takers trying to unload over-stocked products or pitching sponsored products they have no real experience with. When dealing with a local expert like Bob, customers have found the wheat separated from the chaff.
Bob has been a community-minded business owner for decades, serving on many planning boards and sub-committees. He was instrumental in garnering approval for the Recreation Center project in 2001. His most significant contribution to Durango’s community has been coaching ages five to 18 in youth baseball for 30 years.
Bob played college ball for Mesa State and had a tryout with the Chicago Cubs as a lefty pitcher. As he recounts, his curveball was in the mid-80s, and he had a low 90s heater. As a coach in the 80s and 90s, he recalled facing Greeley High School in the first round of the Babe Ruth Baseball State Tournament in Cortez and ruefully reminisced about his boys getting “Ten Run Ruled” by a starting pitcher named Shawn Chacon, who went on to MLB fame as a pitcher for the Rockies and Yankees. In 1996, Bob coached his oldest son, Matthew, and the Durango High School squad to their first and only State Championship. Bob has stayed in contact with a number of those players and watched them excel in their chosen fields. He credits their team-oriented tenacity as being instrumental in their success as adults. That same team spirit is instrumental in Bob’s homegrown success as a local business owner with a legacy that’s here to stay.
