A native of Lovelock, Nevada, Robert W. (Bob) Johnson served as the 17th Commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation from September 30, 2006 until he annouced his retirement in December 2008. A graduate of the University of Nevada, Reno, Johnson has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in agriculture and resource economics.

 

Johnson joined the Bureau of Reclamation in 1975 and has spent his federal career with the agency. He began his career at Reclamation’s Mid-Pacific Regional Office in Sacramento, CA. From Sacramento, he moved to the Boulder City, NV, office, then on to Washington, DC, where he served in a management position in the commissioner’s office. He returned to Boulder City from Washington, first as the chief of the region’s Water, Land and Power Operations Division and then as the deputy regional director before being named regional director.

 

From 1995 to September 2006, Johnson was the regional director of the Lower Colorado Region, an area that encompasses southern Nevada, southern California, most of Arizona and small portions of Utah and New Mexico. Among his duties as regional director, Johnson was the “Water Master” of the lower Colorado River on behalf of the Secretary of the Interior.

 

Water Shaped Commissioner's Career (by Henry Brean, Las Vegas Review-Journal)

Official Bio

A long and winding (Colorado River leads Bureau man to Washington (by Gigi Hanna, Aqueduct Magazine)