A string that still ties him to his dad: how the son of an Indianapolis Greyhound bus driver found his way to the Arch.

Every morning, several days a week for nearly 40 years, a Greyhound bus pulled out of Indianapolis bound for St. Louis. Behind the wheel was Robert Wolfe Sr., who made the outbound trip at sunup and the return trip in the evening. From 1963 to 1965, Robert Wolfe Sr. had a frequent front-row seat to the construction of the Gateway Arch, watching its legs slowly rise over the St. Louis skyline as he crossed the Poplar Street Bridge along his route.

More than sixty years later, Robert Wolfe Jr. is still connected to the Arch through his dad. He is now one of Gateway Arch Park Foundation's newest members.

We had a chance to chat with Robert at our Member and Sponsor Tent during this year’s Blues at the Arch Festival and learn more about how a man from Indianapolis came to support our mission.

Robert Jr. was born in 1951. His father started driving for Greyhound just a year later and kept at it until 1990, and the Indianapolis-St. Louis route was his regular run. Drivers were allowed to bring passengers along, so Robert rode with his dad a few times while he was young. It was on those trips, during the years the monument was going up, that Robert became fascinated with the Arch.

“When you’re a kid, and your dad likes certain things, you want to like what he likes,” Robert told us. “It wasn’t much of a stretch when I first saw it under construction.”

"It was everyday life," he shared. "It reminded me that there's a lot of things happening in the world that we should observe, remember, and recall. This was mine.” 

The last time Robert rode along was in the late 1970’s. By then he was a police officer in Indianapolis, and he hadn’t been back to St. Louis since before the Arch was completed. That trip reconnected him to the city, and to this day he still tries to get back at least once a year for a Cardinals game. This past summer, while listening to a game on the radio, he heard a mention of Gateway Arch Park Foundation. Robert thought of his father, looked us up online, and became a member that same day.

Since joining, Robert says his connection to the park has grown. It has brought him closer to his father’s memory and encouraged him to spend more time exploring St. Louis. As a former police officer with a knack for understanding city streets, he especially loves analyzing the detailed riverfront model in the Museum at the Gateway Arch, which lets him compare Downtown St. Louis then with how it looks today.

"If you want to support the Arch, you should support the Foundation," he said. "The Arch is important to me personally, so I want to see it thriving. Even though it’s a national park, I’m sure there’s a lot of funding required to keep things like this viable.”

Asked for his final thoughts, Robert came back to his father. “The Arch, it’s a tie to me,” he said. “Even through the ages, it’s a string that still attaches me to my dad.”

Robert’s story reminds us that the Arch means something different to every person who visits, and these connections can span generations and state lines. We are incredibly grateful to have him as a member.

Do you feel a special connection to the Arch? Join or renew your membership today and help ensure Gateway Arch National Park remains a welcoming, well-supported place where stories like this can be shared for generations to come.

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