The East Texas Restaurant Association has created an endowed scholarship in honor of Bob Westbrook of Tyler.
The scholarship recognizes Westbrook's many years of service to the local restaurant industry and his work in helping to establish Tyler Junior College’s new culinary arts program.
The scholarship will benefit future culinary arts students at TJC.
Westbrook, who currently serves on the Tyler City Council, is a successful, 19-year veteran CiCi’s Pizza franchisee. He owned and operated three CiCi’s Pizza restaurants, two in Tyler and one in Longview. He credits his success to hard work, strong faith and family, and being active in the communities he served through the Chamber of Commerce.
Westbrook is past chairman of the Tyler Area Chamber of Commerce. In addition, he has served one term as Area Development Council Chairman and two terms as Government Affairs Committee Chairman for the Tyler Chamber. He currently serves on the Innovation Pipeline strategic planning committee and is part of the Mayor’s Mentorship Assistance Program (MAP), guiding high school seniors through the college application process. He also sits on the City of Tyler’s Industry Growth Initiative (IGI) strategic planning executive committee.
Westbrook is also a Rotarian. He is a “Paul Harris Fellow” and past president of the Tyler Sunrise Rotary Club. He currently is a member of the South Tyler Rotary Club. His “service above self” ideology drives his community service.
Some of his past committee seats include chairman of the East Texas Food Bank, Chairman of the Northeast Texas Public Health District, Chairman of the Texas Restaurant Association Education Foundation and President of the Texas Restaurant Association.