NORTH BEND – When Bob Ashby entered a room, people were greeted with a sudden burst of energy, humor and good will.

People have been dealing with those qualities being taken away just as suddenly as of Ashby’s passing on March 24. He was 44.

“He always gave 150 percent while going 90 mph,” said Snoqualmie Valley Schools Superintendent Rich McCullough. “You feel his absence in terms of the loss of energy.”

Bob and his wife Lisa are known throughout the Valley as supporters of their community and, in particular, the Snoqualmie Valley School District where their two children attend. Ever since the family moved to North Bend, they have become indispensable hearts and minds to schools that rely on parent involvement for the best education they can offer.

“His [Bob] reputation proceeded him,” said Dick Giger, who became North Bend Elementary School principal three years ago.

It was that excitement that drew Lisa to Bob when they were both working at the same office building in Bellevue. Bob, who used to smoke, would catch Lisa’s eye on her way in and out of work where she saw him on cigarette breaks. One day when one of Lisa’s sisters rought some balloons in for her birthday, her sister remarked that some cute guy had teased her on the way in about the balloons.

“I knew they were talking about Bob,” Lisa said.

The two married in 1991 and moved around to Oregon, Ohio and Pennsylvania before coming back to Washington in 1996.

“He visited Washington once when he was 12 and said that he would eventually live out here,” Lisa said.

When the Ashbys moved to North Bend with their two children, Daniel and Madeline, they took to their adopted community instantly. Becky Jorgensen, a school district board member, was a neighbor of the Ashbys in the Wilderness Rim neighborhood. She remembered Bob as the guy who always came out of the house to say hello when you walked by.

“That particular street was great,” she said. “A lot of it was people who came out of their doors. A wonderful group of people who enjoyed chatting.”

The Ashbys would eventually move into the Jorgensen’s house, and the families remained close. As a board member and friend, Jorgensen got to see the Ashbys in and out of school and how they raised their family.

“They are the epitome of great parents,” she said.

As the Ashby’s children went through school, Bob and Lisa got more involved. They helped develop North Bend Elementary School’s Research Instruction for Scholastic Enrichment (RISE) program, an after-school program that eventually grew to involve Opstad Elementary. The Ashby’s pace got so hectic that one day Bob told Lisa they needed to start saying “No,” only to come back sheepishly the next day to say he had agreed to become involved in the Snoqualmie Valley Schools Foundation. The foundation was happy to see him.

“It was like a breath of fresh air,” said Carolyn Day, a Snoqualmie Valley Schools Foundation board member. “He loved to spar and argue and everything. No task was too difficult.”

Bob’s pace was a result of a love for his children, who were glad to see him around school.

“He was very proud of his kids,” Day said. “He was always bragging about them.”

The week before Bob died, McCullough saw him at successive school events. First at a Thursday night board meeting, then at a Friday morning fund raiser for the foundation and then later at a fund-raising dinner for North Bend Elementary. At the board meeting, the school administration was taking some heat from residents upset with one of its decisions. Bob got up and spoke, commending the board for all their work. To McCullough, it was a typical “Bob” moment.

“He always tried to compliment us on something,” McCullough said. “You could not get him to say anything negative.”

Lisa hopes that legacy is what people will remember about Bob. Everything about him spoke of improving health, happiness and education. Whether it was his pet peeve about people posting signs where they shouldn’t or trying to persuade smokers to quit (he himself quit five years ago), Bob wanted to change his community for the better.

Lisa put together a book of letters that family and friends had written to congratulate Bob on the fifth anniversary of his quitting smoking, which was four days after he passed away. Although Lisa is sad Bob never got to see the book, she will hang onto it to show her children if they every think about taking up the habit.

“He had his priorities straight,” Lisa said.

Others saw those priorities and what they brought to Bob’s community, his wife, his children and everything he touched.

“Bob Ashby knew how to live life,” Jorgensen said. “That is my best summation.”