Nuclear Engineer pours energy into CCL and Family Center

Given his passion for helping people, commitment to just causes, and military experience, Bob Laird, a member of the CCL board of directors, may well be considered an “army of one.”

Formerly the director of the diocesan Office for Family Life in Arlington, Va., Laird is now using his many gifts as executive director of the Tepeyac Family Center in Fairfax, Va.

The oldest of six children, the Eria, Pa., native went to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He and his wife Gerri were married in 1970, three days after his graduation. He spent 22 years in the U.S. Army as a licensed nuclear engineer. After getting his masters degree in physics and another in nuclear engineering, he went on to teach nuclear engineering at West Point.

He and Gerri became a CCL teaching couple while they were living in Germany. “We were the only two people in our NFP class, so when our teachers left their position, we signed on,” he said.

The Lairds have five children and six grandchildren. Bob Laird truly enjoys having the opportunity to “learn from them and perhaps vice versa.” His enthusiasm for CCL has been passed on to his oldest son, Rob, who spoke at CCL’s convention last summer.

Laird loves spending time with older teens and young adults, especially in conversation. Part of his vision for the future includes using technology and this input from the “iPod generation” to help bring CCL’s teaching materials up-to-date.

Laird’s enthusiasm for life and learning is infectious. “Dealing with people in a just way transcends one’s occupation or form of business,” he stated. In so many ways, he puts his people skills and enthusiasm to work — along with the logic and discipline he learned as an Army engineer — both at the Tepeyac Center and CCL.

So how did a career Army officer move into the non-profit world? Laird says he could write a book with his answer. He was working in an office supporting the Secretary of Defense and had just been listed for promotion to Colonel. Somehow, he ended up heading an interagency working group as part of a delegation to Russia to help them dismantle their nuclear weapons; he was playing a key part in the actual negotiations.

That all changed when his wife called on their wedding anniversary on June 6, 1992, telling him that the position of assistant director for the Family Life Office in the Arlington diocese was open. He jumped at the chance.

Laird served the Arlington diocese from 1992 to 2005. He paired the job with a part-time position with the Couple to Couple League, serving as its Middle Atlantic Regional Representative from 1992 to 1999. He represented CCL at national events staged in Washington, D.C., and recruited new teaching couples.

In 2005, Laird accepted the position at Tepeyac (pronounced Te-pay’-ack). The Tepeyac Family Center was founded in 1994 by Dr. John Bruchalski. The clinic is named after the hill in Mexico where St. Juan Diego received the apparitions from Our Lady of Guadalupe.

The Tepeyac Family Center’s mission is “the restoration of the integration of the human person by combining the best of modern medicine with the healing presence of Jesus Christ.” Laird adds: “The work of Tepeyac Family Center — to help women of all economic, racial, cultural and religious backgrounds — is the work of the Church.”

Laird says his decision to sign on as director at Tepeyac was not a difficult one. “I realized that they needed someone with a business mind to help them with the business aspects of a non-profit OB-GYN practice.”

His work at the Tepeyac Center is bearing abundant fruit. The Washington Post ran a front-page, above-the-fold article on the clinic on August 31 that was very positive.
For Laird and the staff at the clinic, the Tepeyac Center is a charity that takes in much more than the 40 hours in a week. “Just as with CCL,” Laird observed, “the volunteers for these organizations are phenomenal.” Laird noted that the Tepeyac Center has a gala scheduled in November run totally by its patient-volunteers.

A man like Bob Laird could make a difference in any field he chose, but his motivation is primarily that of serving his family and the Church. He speaks of his deep appreciation and love for his family, reflecting: “I have the opportunity to live out my faith, not only at home but very openly within the workplace as well. Our faith relies on the laity to step up to the plate and actively participate in the life and mission of the Church. In some cases this can be done on an individual or family basis, but many times the vast scope of the effort must be on a broader scale.”

He is proud to be a part of the Couple to Couple League and Tepeyac Family Center. “Dealing with people in a just way is a basic fundamental of good Christian living,” he said. “We are all made in the image and likeness of God. Christ is God. Imitating Christ is imitating God. It is this principal that is the tenet of our Catholic faith — the two greatest commandments: Love God; love your neighbor.”

This article was originally published in Family Foundations Magazine (Nov/Dec 2006).