Retiring Iowa federal Clerk of Court Robert Phelps’ career path changed but public service remained his goal

CEDAR RAPIDS — His career path started out as a military officer, but a helicopter crash during a training exercise and a year of rehab for a back injury changed his course and led him to Iowa, a decision he has never regretted.

Robert Phelps, 64, U.S. District Court clerk of court, will retire at the end of the month after serving more than 16 years, with the last 14 as the manager of the clerk’s office.

The clerk’s office handles all the non-judicial functions of the court — maintaining court records, dockets and courtroom and building technology; managing the budget, finances and jury systems; providing interpreters and court reporters; and sending out all official court notices.

Phelps oversees 24 clerks in the Cedar Rapids and Sioux City offices.

Career path

Phelps, during an interview last week at the courthouse, said he “loved” the military, where he earned the rank of first lieutenant in the U.S. Army and would have remained if not for the back injury that forced him into being discharged.

He had followed in his father’s footsteps, who also had been in the military but serving as a U.S. Navy pilot.

His mother was a schoolteacher. They met in Hawaii and, as a Navy family, they moved up and down the California coast, then moved to Virginia Beach, Va. But the Midwest is the place he called home.

He completed his undergraduate business degree through the University of Maryland while stationed in Germany. Phelps then went to officer candidate school, followed by duty at Fort Riley, near Junction City, Kan.

After the helicopter crash and discharge, he decided to go to law school. He was accepted into the University of Kansas School of Law in Lawrence, Kan.

Phelps admitted during his third year he realized it didn’t want to practice law, but he was interested in public service. While in school, he was a law clerk for the Kansas appellate courts — Court of Appeals and Supreme Court — and after graduating, he took a job as chief deputy clerk for the appellate courts, where stayed for eight years.

For the next five years, Phelps took a job as chief deputy clerk with the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, Ga. He and his wife started raising a family and wanted to come back to the Midwest. A job opening for a chief deputy clerk with the district court in Cedar Rapids came up in 2005.

Phelps said he’ll never forget moving on New Year’s Eve 2004, in the middle of an ice storm, to Cedar Rapids.

“The neighbors came over to help us,” Phelps said. “I couldn’t believe it. They helped us unload the truck.

“Some were going to New Year’s Eve parties and left, but then they came back and helped again. That was our first experience with Iowa.”

During tenure

Phelps acknowledged he has seen the district through some challenging and difficult times, but he credited his staff in Cedar Rapids and Sioux City for working together during the crisis times over the past 13 years.

Three district judges said they were grateful for his years of service because his leadership and skills helped guide the district through the 2008 flood relocation of the courthouse as well as the construction of the new courthouse.

He also handled logistical challenges from the Postville immigration raid in 2008 at now defunct-Agriprocessors slaughterhouse and meatpacking plant, in which nearly 400 undocumented workers were arrested.

Phelps helped set up a temporary court at the National Cattle Congress in Waterloo to accommodate hearings for hundreds being criminally charged and the subsequent plea hearings.

He enjoyed the challenges and various tasks, including becoming a construction project manager, that were needed during those times.

One of the biggest challenges was the flood. The courthouse relocated twice — first from the flooded building at 101 First St. SE, where the Cedar Rapids City Hall is today, to a temporary space on C Avenue SW, and then in 2012 to the new courthouse at 111 Seventh Ave. SE.

It was his first time being involved in the planning of the courthouse. He and the judges as well as the other agencies housed in the courthouse were involved with helping the General Services Administration and the architect and construction companies plan out the 305,999-square-foot building.

“I became the project manager that last year and I learned so much about construction and architecture,” Phelps said.

U.S. District Senior Judge Linda Reade, who was chief judge in 2008, said in an email that “as the floodwaters were receding,” Phelps already was securing housing for the courts and other agencies and made sure the necessary resources were in place to resume service in less than one week.

The temporary space operated four years before the new location was constructed.

Reade, who provided comments while on vacation, said Phelps leadership skills were “invaluable” in the planning of the new courthouse, and also during the recovery from the August 2020 derecho that had caused damage to the courthouse.

Judge C.J. Williams agreed, saying Phelps has served the district with “dedication and distinction through some of the most serious crisis” with his “calm, confident and competent leadership.”

“His behind-the-scenes service was invaluable, but highly valued by those of us who know what he has done,” Williams said in his email. “He will be sorely missed, but left this district in great shape and in good hands.”

Chief Judge Leonard Strand pointed out Phelps’ fiscal responsibility, stating the clerk’s office regularly returns unspent funds to the judiciary at the end of each fiscal year.

Phelps has earned national recognition for his emergency preparedness efforts and his work with the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, he added.

Since becoming chief judge in 2017, Strand said he has seen Phelps “unique ability” to reach out to other courts and the Administrative Office to share information and find solutions to problems, which has been “especially helpful during the pandemic when “balancing public health concerns with our obligation to avoid unnecessary delays,” he said.

Phelps said he expects a smooth transition after he leaves because his chief deputy clerk, Paul DeYoung, will replace him starting April 1.

Comments: (319) 398-8318; trish.mehaffey@thegazette.com