A resident of Holmes County for thirty-one years, Bob brings to the office three decades of business and leadership experience. For many years he owned and operated, a swine production farm and decided to "retire" from livestock production in 2004. Hidden Hollow Farms still produces corn and soybeans. Bob also owns Gibbs Enterprises LLC, a rental property business.
Bob is a past president of the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation, Ohio's largest agriculture organization which has over 210,000 family members. A member of the Ohio Farm Bureau Board of Trustees since 1985, Bob is well-known as an informed advocate of agriculture.
A former board member of the Farm Bureau Bank, Bob has held board positions on the Ohio Livestock Coalition, Ohio Cooperative Council and the Ohio Farm Bureau Alliance Group. Bob was president of the Loudonville Farmers Equity where he served on the board for 12 years.
Bob has served as president of the Holmes County Extension Advisory Committee, the Holmes County Farm Bureau and is a past supervisor for the Holmes County Soil and Water Conservation Service.
Bob is a recipient of the prestigious Pork All-American Award in 1983 from the National Pork Producer's Council for exemplary leadership and service to the nation's pork industry. He has also received the Guardian of Small Business Award from the National Independent Federation of Small Businesses, NFIB, the Watch Dog of the Treasury from the United Conservatives of Ohio, the Legislator of the Year Award from the Ohio Restaurant Association and was the first recipient of the Ohio State University Extension Leadership Award Holmes County 2005.
A graduate of Bay Village Senior High School, Gibbs graduated from The Ohio State University Agricultural Technical Institute in 1974. He worked in the animal science department at the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center in Wooster from 1974 to 1978. June 1978 Bob became self-employed as a farmer, predominately producing market hogs. In 2004, when Bob decided to "retire" from hog production the operation had grown to producing nearly 10,000 hogs annually.
Bob is a member of Farm Bureau, Chamber of Commences in Ashland, Holmes, Seville and Wadsworth, Pheasants Forever, life member of the National Rifle Association (NRA) and the Nashville United Methodist Church.
He and his wife, the former Jody Cox of Wooster, have been married thirty-one years. They have three grown children, Adam, Amy and Andrew.