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Secret Service agent Bob Hislop shakes hands with Pope John Paul II at World Youth Day in Denver, April 15, 1993. The Pope was one of many visiting dignitaries Hislop was assigned to protect during his career.
Each week the Free Press profiles a Grand Valley community member for its “Meet Your Neighbors” series. Look for a new “Neighbor” each Monday in the Free Press.
As a Secret Service agent Bob Hislop protected the lives, and sometimes the dignity of five United States presidents.
“If a Secret Service agent sees something that's degrading to your protectee it hurts your reputation and it hurts your protectee,” to divulge that information, said Hislop, now retired and a Fruita resident.
“Some things you see and hear you take to the grave with you,” he said.
“Worthy of trust and confidence” is the Secret Service motto.
“Even today, retired Secret Service personnel live by those words,” said Hislop, who protected former presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
He also protected visiting dignitaries, investigated suspected terrorists, counterfeiters and forgeries of government obligations, including income tax and bonds.
In those days the Palestine Liberation Organization, the Japanese Red Army, and Germany's Baader-Meinhof Gang were considered terrorists, Hislop said.
“They were the terrorists of the day,” Hislop said. “Different people, new names.”
Hislop hadn't planned on a career in law enforcement after he graduated from Boulder High School in 1961. Hislop was married, and working as a salesman for American Golfer, a sportswear manufacturer in Columbus, Ohio, when the owners decided to retire and close the business in 1969.
Hislop's neighbor was a cop and Hislop needed a job so he applied and was hired as a patrolman, and later promoted to detective for the Columbus, Ohio police department.
The U. S. Air Force, in conjunction with Central Michigan University, ran a graduate school outside of Columbus. After all of the pilots were called to duty in Vietnam the school was opened to city and county employees and Hislop seized the opportunity to earn his Master's degree in public administration.
“My goal was to become chief of police,” Hislop said.
Plans changed, however, after a Secret Service boss approached Hislop and invited him to apply to the Secret Service. Hislop took the test, and within four months was hired and assigned to the Columbus field office. It was 1974.
Two years later he was transferred to Washington, D.C., to work in the Intelligence Division keeping track of all the people who make threats against people he was assigned to protect.
“We call them the three C's — criminals, crusaders and crazies,” Hislop said.
Middle East duty
Hislop often traveled overseas to do security work in advance of presidential or vice presidential trips.
“When you're overseas as a Secret Service agent you have no police powers. You're a guest of the host country,” Hislop said. “You work with their police, and secret service.”
Hislop worked with the Indian Security Police in India; with SAVAK, Iran's secret police; the Egyptian Presidential Guard in Egypt; and in Israel, with Shin Bet, and Mossad, Israel's version of the FBI and CIA.
Hislop spent many years working in the Middle East.
While then-President Carter, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, and Egyptian leader Anwar al-Sadat attempted peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians, Hislop traveled back and forth from Cairo, Tel Aviv and Washington as the Secret Service's Intelligence Coordinator. He'd gather intelligence on the “criminals, crusaders, and crazies” and watch out for potential threats against the peace negotiators.
Hislop remembered a time when he and his colleague felt out numbered. He and a Central Intelligence Agency officer were protecting the American delegation, including Carter's son Chip, at a funeral for the president of Algeria.
It was during an era of American embassy takeovers in Tehran and Kuwait. Demonstrations were held in front of other embassies. The funeral party included leaders of countries unfriendly to the United States.
Yasser Arafat, a leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organization entered with several bodyguards carrying chrome-plated AK-47 machine guns. Libya's Moammar Khadafy came to the funeral with heavily armed body guards. Hislop and his colleague carried .38-caliber pistols.
“It makes your heart beat a little faster,” Hislop said.
Skiing with President Ford
Hislop wanted to move back to his native Colorado and in 1982 he was transferred to Denver. But his overseas duties weren't over.
Six months after moving to Colorado, Hislop was assigned to the G-7 Economic Summit in Bonn, Germany, where the agency needed his expertise investigating the Baader-Meinhof Gang.
He left his Colorado home another time when one of his informants brought him counterfeit money.
“Next thing I knew I was on a plane to Hong Kong (where the fake money was printed) working undercover to meet the bad guy,” Hislop said.
He spent 18 months going back and forth between Hong Kong and Denver. Fourteen people were finally arrested.
In Colorado, Hislop often skied with his protectees, such as Carter, Ford, former vice president Dan Quayle and various visiting heads of state.
“I got to ski with Gerry Ford the last day he skied,” Hislop said. “He was going to have knee replacement surgery and he knew he wasn't going to ski again.
“Skiing down the hill with Gerry Ford, (in Vail) for the last time, is a good memory.”
Hislop retired from the Secret Service in 1995 and began working for a friend of Bush's, John Paul DeJoria, who owns John Paul Mitchell systems, a professional hair care product. Hislop traveled extensively as vice president of the company, retiring in 2004.
Hislop remains in contact with his law enforcement colleagues however. In September, Hislop completed a term as president of the Association of Former Agents of the United States Secret Service, a network of 2,500 members.
He started an international ski race called the North American Police Ski Championships 20 years ago with seven of his colleagues.
Each year law enforcement personnel and their guests come from all over the world to take part in the annual weeklong event, which is a fundraiser for the Special Olympics.
The group has raised $750,000 for Special Olympics' winter program.
Reagan's fingerprint
As an active Secret Service agent you keep your personal, political thoughts to yourself, Hislop said.
“You remove yourself from politics,” he said.
Hislop has vivid memories of Reagan.
He remembered the day in 1981 when Reagan was shot. Hislop was supervising the duty desk a couple blocks from the White House where protectees are monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year.
An agent tried to shield Reagan by stepping in front of him and pushing him into the limousine, but the president was injured when a bullet ricocheted and entered his lung.
On a happier day years later, Hislop was riding in a car with Reagan, who was in Denver to give a speech. Hislop had brought four Colorado Rockies baseballs with him to ask Reagan to sign.
One was for his son, two he planned to auction off for the Special Olympics, and the fourth was for himself.
“I kept the one he smudged (accidentally) his fingerprint on. Not only do I have his signature, I have his fingerprint,” Hislop said.
Hislop remembered when Reagan announced he had Alzheimer's Disease. It was Hislop's birthday.
“It was not a happy day,” he said.
‘Nothing like this Grand Valley'
Hislop's first marriage ended in divorce.
The Secret Service is hard on marriage,” Hislop said.
He married his second wife, Krysstine Gubser-Hislop, 11 years ago. Together, they have four grown children, three grandchildren and another one on the way.
The couple met briefly years ago at a University of Colorado football game. Years later, they met again at another University of Colorado football game.
“We never had another date,” after that second game, Hislop said. “She's my best friend, my soul mate.”
The couple left the Front Range and settled in Fruita in 2006. Of all the places he's lived, Fruita is his favorite.
“I've been around the world thanks to the Secret Service,” Hislop said.
“It's all been nice, but there's nothing like this Grand Valley. I'm a Coloradan.”
Reach Sharon Sullivan at ssullivan@gjfreepress.com.
As a Secret Service agent Bob Hislop protected the lives, and sometimes the dignity of five United States presidents.
“If a Secret Service agent sees something that's degrading to your protectee it hurts your reputation and it hurts your protectee,” to divulge that information, said Hislop, now retired and a Fruita resident.
“Some things you see and hear you take to the grave with you,” he said.
“Worthy of trust and confidence” is the Secret Service motto.
“Even today, retired Secret Service personnel live by those words,” said Hislop, who protected former presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
He also protected visiting dignitaries, investigated suspected terrorists, counterfeiters and forgeries of government obligations, including income tax and bonds.
In those days the Palestine Liberation Organization, the Japanese Red Army, and Germany's Baader-Meinhof Gang were considered terrorists, Hislop said.
“They were the terrorists of the day,” Hislop said. “Different people, new names.”
Hislop hadn't planned on a career in law enforcement after he graduated from Boulder High School in 1961. Hislop was married, and working as a salesman for American Golfer, a sportswear manufacturer in Columbus, Ohio, when the owners decided to retire and close the business in 1969.
Hislop's neighbor was a cop and Hislop needed a job so he applied and was hired as a patrolman, and later promoted to detective for the Columbus, Ohio police department.
The U. S. Air Force, in conjunction with Central Michigan University, ran a graduate school outside of Columbus. After all of the pilots were called to duty in Vietnam the school was opened to city and county employees and Hislop seized the opportunity to earn his Master's degree in public administration.
“My goal was to become chief of police,” Hislop said.
Plans changed, however, after a Secret Service boss approached Hislop and invited him to apply to the Secret Service. Hislop took the test, and within four months was hired and assigned to the Columbus field office. It was 1974.
Two years later he was transferred to Washington, D.C., to work in the Intelligence Division keeping track of all the people who make threats against people he was assigned to protect.
“We call them the three C's — criminals, crusaders and crazies,” Hislop said.
Middle East duty
Hislop often traveled overseas to do security work in advance of presidential or vice presidential trips.
“When you're overseas as a Secret Service agent you have no police powers. You're a guest of the host country,” Hislop said. “You work with their police, and secret service.”
Hislop worked with the Indian Security Police in India; with SAVAK, Iran's secret police; the Egyptian Presidential Guard in Egypt; and in Israel, with Shin Bet, and Mossad, Israel's version of the FBI and CIA.
Hislop spent many years working in the Middle East.
While then-President Carter, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, and Egyptian leader Anwar al-Sadat attempted peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians, Hislop traveled back and forth from Cairo, Tel Aviv and Washington as the Secret Service's Intelligence Coordinator. He'd gather intelligence on the “criminals, crusaders, and crazies” and watch out for potential threats against the peace negotiators.
Hislop remembered a time when he and his colleague felt out numbered. He and a Central Intelligence Agency officer were protecting the American delegation, including Carter's son Chip, at a funeral for the president of Algeria.
It was during an era of American embassy takeovers in Tehran and Kuwait. Demonstrations were held in front of other embassies. The funeral party included leaders of countries unfriendly to the United States.
Yasser Arafat, a leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organization entered with several bodyguards carrying chrome-plated AK-47 machine guns. Libya's Moammar Khadafy came to the funeral with heavily armed body guards. Hislop and his colleague carried .38-caliber pistols.
“It makes your heart beat a little faster,” Hislop said.
Skiing with President Ford
Hislop wanted to move back to his native Colorado and in 1982 he was transferred to Denver. But his overseas duties weren't over.
Six months after moving to Colorado, Hislop was assigned to the G-7 Economic Summit in Bonn, Germany, where the agency needed his expertise investigating the Baader-Meinhof Gang.
He left his Colorado home another time when one of his informants brought him counterfeit money.
“Next thing I knew I was on a plane to Hong Kong (where the fake money was printed) working undercover to meet the bad guy,” Hislop said.
He spent 18 months going back and forth between Hong Kong and Denver. Fourteen people were finally arrested.
In Colorado, Hislop often skied with his protectees, such as Carter, Ford, former vice president Dan Quayle and various visiting heads of state.
“I got to ski with Gerry Ford the last day he skied,” Hislop said. “He was going to have knee replacement surgery and he knew he wasn't going to ski again.
“Skiing down the hill with Gerry Ford, (in Vail) for the last time, is a good memory.”
Hislop retired from the Secret Service in 1995 and began working for a friend of Bush's, John Paul DeJoria, who owns John Paul Mitchell systems, a professional hair care product. Hislop traveled extensively as vice president of the company, retiring in 2004.
Hislop remains in contact with his law enforcement colleagues however. In September, Hislop completed a term as president of the Association of Former Agents of the United States Secret Service, a network of 2,500 members.
He started an international ski race called the North American Police Ski Championships 20 years ago with seven of his colleagues.
Each year law enforcement personnel and their guests come from all over the world to take part in the annual weeklong event, which is a fundraiser for the Special Olympics.
The group has raised $750,000 for Special Olympics' winter program.
Reagan's fingerprint
As an active Secret Service agent you keep your personal, political thoughts to yourself, Hislop said.
“You remove yourself from politics,” he said.
Hislop has vivid memories of Reagan.
He remembered the day in 1981 when Reagan was shot. Hislop was supervising the duty desk a couple blocks from the White House where protectees are monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year.
An agent tried to shield Reagan by stepping in front of him and pushing him into the limousine, but the president was injured when a bullet ricocheted and entered his lung.
On a happier day years later, Hislop was riding in a car with Reagan, who was in Denver to give a speech. Hislop had brought four Colorado Rockies baseballs with him to ask Reagan to sign.
One was for his son, two he planned to auction off for the Special Olympics, and the fourth was for himself.
“I kept the one he smudged (accidentally) his fingerprint on. Not only do I have his signature, I have his fingerprint,” Hislop said.
Hislop remembered when Reagan announced he had Alzheimer's Disease. It was Hislop's birthday.
“It was not a happy day,” he said.
‘Nothing like this Grand Valley'
Hislop's first marriage ended in divorce.
The Secret Service is hard on marriage,” Hislop said.
He married his second wife, Krysstine Gubser-Hislop, 11 years ago. Together, they have four grown children, three grandchildren and another one on the way.
The couple met briefly years ago at a University of Colorado football game. Years later, they met again at another University of Colorado football game.
“We never had another date,” after that second game, Hislop said. “She's my best friend, my soul mate.”
The couple left the Front Range and settled in Fruita in 2006. Of all the places he's lived, Fruita is his favorite.
“I've been around the world thanks to the Secret Service,” Hislop said.
“It's all been nice, but there's nothing like this Grand Valley. I'm a Coloradan.”
Reach Sharon Sullivan at ssullivan@gjfreepress.com.
