Tuck, Bob (Robert Lazelle), 1944-2019
Biographical note
Robert Lazelle "Bob" Tuck was born in Seattle, Washington, in 1944, and grew up on a farm in Yakima, Washington. He attended Yakima Valley Communitey College and the University of Montana, then earned a bachelor’s degree from Eastern Washington University in 1968. That same year, he and Lynn Smith were married; they later had three children. Tuck worked in the field of salmon management and restoration. From 1977 to 1992, he was a fish biologist for the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, and worked to defend Native treaty rights. In 1991, he co-founded the Yakima Basin Environmental Education Program (YBEEP). In 1995, he earned a master’s degree in resource management from Central Washington University. From 1998 to 2000, he served on the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission. Tuck died in 2019.
Sources: Vital records on Ancestry.com; information provided by Tuck in his interview; Tuck’s master’s thesis, Summer 1995 (accessed April 2026) https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/etd/1785/; "Obituary of Robert Lazelle Tuck) (accessed April 2026), https://cascadiacremation.com/tribute/details/2211/Robert-Tuck/obituary.html.
Found in 1 Collection or Record:
Oral history interview with Bob Tuck
Oral history interview with Bob Tuck, conducted by Clark Hansen on May 29, 2000, as part of the Columbia River Dissenters Oral History Series. Tuck discusses the topic of his 1995 master’s thesis, “Impacts of Irrigation Development on Anadromous Fish in the Yakima River Basin, Washington,” which examines the reasons for the decline in salmon runs in the Yakima Basin between 1880 and 1905, as well as proposals for permanent drawdowns and dam removals in the Columbia River Basin.