Muskogee businessman and community leader Robert N. “Bob” Yaffe was a lifelong civil rights activist and supporter of the American Civil Liberties Union and the Southern Poverty Law Center. Throughout his life, Yaffe was dedicated to advancing the cause of equal justice under the law.

Bob Yaffe devoted countless hours through the years to local and national organizations, including serving on the Oklahoma State Judicial Nominating Commission. In this appointed position, he helped identify highly qualified legal practitioners to serve as judges. Yaffe also was a strong supporter of education, making significant contributions to the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence, which recognizes the state’s top students and most dedicated educators, and to other organizations that advanced education.

It was unclear what prompted Bob Yaffe’s devotion to social causes, but the Fort Smith, Arkansas, native did know from his own experience that financial security could be fleeting. His family’s business, Yaffe Iron & Metal Company, suffered during World War II, and in May of 1944, ten-year-old Bob and his father left his mother and siblings in Fort Smith to go to work in the scrap metal business in Muskogee, Oklahoma. Bob later graduated from Muskogee’s Central High School and attended the University of Oklahoma. This move that had been made out of economic urgency led to a successful outcome. The Yaffes’ business eventually grew to include ten plants in four states.

After Bob’s death in 2006, his widow Donna and their children chose to honor him by establishing a fund at The University of Tulsa in an area of study that would have been close to his heart. The Robert N. Yaffe Public Interest Law Endowment Fund at the College of Law assists students through scholarships and stipends, helping them to pursue their studies in this specialized area of law.

The University of Tulsa is grateful for this important endowment that will sustain Robert Yaffe’s name and legacy for generations to come in the TU College of Law.