Bob Crowley

Bob Crowley
Contestant Profile
Born	February 25, 1951 (1951-02-25)
Hometown	Portland, Maine
Occupation	Physics Teacher
Survivor Career
Version	United States
Tribe(s)	Kota Nobag
Finish	Winner
Alliance(s)	Onion Alliance
Challenge Wins	14
Votes Against	2
Days Lasted	39

Robert "Bob" Crowley is the Sole Survivor of Survivor: Gabon.

The oldest person ever to win Survivor at 57, Bob is known for outlasting the rest of his alliance and for creating two convincingly realistic fake Hidden Immunity Idols. This, his numerous challenge wins, subtle gameplay, and fatherly relationship with Sugar Kiper helped take him to the end, and ultimately he became the Sole Survivor in a 4-3-0 vote.

Profile

Retrieved from CBS.com

Robert "Bob" Crowley (58)
Hometown: Portland, Maine
Occupation: Physics Teacher

Robert Crowley considers himself a hybrid of Indiana Jones and Robinson Crusoe. He loves the outdoors and is always ready for his next adventure.

Robert is a high school physics teacher in Gorham, Maine and holds both Associate and Bachelor degrees in forestry from the University of Maine - Orono and a Masters of Education degree from the University of Southern Maine. However, after the school bell rings, Robert becomes an entrepreneur. His wide range of jobs span from being a first mate on a research boat for the Smithsonian Institution in Canada to an entomologist for the USDA, to a skunk relocater, as well as President, Vice President and Chief Negotiator for his local Teacher's Union.

When not on an adventure, Robert interests include journal writing, story telling, photography, bone collecting, archeology and camping.

This tree climbing scientist, who describes himself as honest, adventurous, resourceful and witty, built his truly "green" summer cabin back when green was only referred to as the color. His "green" cabin was completely built with recycled material and requires a fraction of the energy of the average U.S. home. He's built numerous structures from recycled material including wharfs, saunas, a chicken house and a hunting cabin.

Robert's strategy is to be a provider and to fly under the radar on Survivor. He's out to prove that nice guys can make it to the end of the game.

Robert and his wife Peggy reside in Portland, Maine. They have two sons, David and John, one daughter, Page, and a high maintenance cat named William. Robert's birth date is February 25, 1951.

Survivor

At the start of the season, Bob was placed on the Kota Tribe. Bob had originally been in an alliance with fellow tribemates Jacquie Berg, Marcus Lehman, Charlie Herschel, and Corinne Kaplan. The Kota Tribe proved to be strong by winning the first three challenges. However, when Kota lost the Immunity Challenge and were forced to face Tribal Council, Bob joined his alliance in voting out Paloma Soto-Castillo.

In the following episode, there was a Tribe Switch which ended up taking Jacquie to the opposing Fang tribe. When Jacquie was voted off, Randy Bailey was welcomed into Bob's alliance. The Kota tribe would still stand strong, and the tribe won the next two Immunity Challenges. Bob also helped vote out Dan Kay over the weaker Susie Smith in fear that Dan had the Hidden Immunity Idol. This ended up being the vital mistake to Bob's alliance as Susie would end up switching sides.

On Day 21, both tribes assumed that a merge would be coming up but instead, they were welcomed with another tribal swap. Bob and Marcus remained on Kota while Charlie, Randy, and Corinne moved to Fang. When Fang won the Immunity Challenge, Bob had to face Tribal Council where tribemates Ken Hoang, Crystal Cox, and Susie voted out Marcus.

After Marcus was voted out, both tribes merged into the new Nobag Tribe ("Nobag" is Gabon spelled backwards). Charlie ended up getting voted out at the next Tribal Council and it soon appeared that Bob's alliance would crumble. Bob was targeted next, but when he got sent to Exile Island, he created a fake Hidden Immunity Idol. He used to fake idol to secure his spot in the game and Randy, his own alliance member, was blindsided. After Randy's elimination, Bob created another Hidden Immunity Idol in an attempt to save himself and last alliance member, Corinne. Although it was futile and Corinne was eliminated, it caused Ken to betray his own alliance and vote against Matty Whitmore.

Bob's winning streak continued by winning his fifth challenge in a row. This was something his other tribemates did not expect. Later, Ken tried to propose a deal with Bob and said that if he had won immunity he would give it up to Ken since he had tricked him at the last Tribal Council. However, Sugar Kiper informed Bob that it was just a trick to blindside him and Bob went against the idea. In the following Tribal Councils, Crystal and Ken were both voted out respectively.

In the Final Immunity Challenge, Bob lost to Susie in a card building challenge. Bob seemed doomed again, but he was able to convince Sugar to go on his side and vote against Matty. Knowing that a tiebreaker challenge might occur, Bob also started practicing how to build a fire. At Tribal Council, a tie did occur, and as Bob had expected, a tie would take place. Matty and Bob were forced to compete in a fire building challenge and once again, Bob won.

At the Final Tribal Council, Bob was confronted by Ken for not giving up his immunity. Crowley was also confronted by Randy for using the fake Hidden Immunity Idol against him. Corinne asked Bob to show a nasty side of him and make her believe why Bob didn't like Sugar and he tried showing a nasty side by disliking Sugar, but when he started saying something positive about Sugar, Corinne interrupted and told him she didn't want to hear the good side of Bob. In the end, the jury voted Bob as the Sole Survivor in a vote of 4-3-0. Bob earned the votes of Marcus, Charlie, Randy, and Corinne, essentially all the original Kota's plus Randy. In addition, at the Reunion Show, Bob also won the "Sprint Player of the Season" award, earning the fan's vote over Sugar and Matty.

Voting History

Bob's Voting History
Episode	Bob's Votes	Voted Against Bob
1	Kota Tribe Immune
	Kota Tribe Immune
2	Paloma	-
3	Kota Tribe Immune
4	Kota Tribe Immune
5	Kota Tribe Immune
6	Dan	-
7	Ken	-
8	Crystal	-
9	Susie	-
11	Matty	Individual Immunity
12	Crystal	Individual Immunity
13	Ken	Individual Immunity
	Matty	Matty, Susie1
Jury Votes for Bob	Charlie, Corinne, Marcus, Randy
Sole Survivor, Day 39

^1 In "Say Goodbye to Gabon", the vote ended with a 2-2 tie between Bob and Matty, forcing a fire-making tiebreaker. Bob won the tiebreaker and remained in the game.

Post-Survivor

• In 2009, Crowley published his autobiography, Making Waves: The Stories of Maine's Bob Crowley. The producers of Survivor, however, forbade Crowley from mentioning the show in his book.
• In Summer of 2009, Bob, along with the other first eighteen Survivor winners, appeared on a TVGuide special "Survivor Millionaires: Where Are They Now?"
• On January 9, 2010, Bob attended Survivor's 10-year anniversary party along with all of his Gabon cast mates.
• Bob opened a winter camp in Durham, Maine, where, every year, is performed the Durham Warriors Survival Challenge, a one weekend Survivor-based charity fundraiser event.

Trivia

• Survivor: Vanuatu contestant Julie Berry attended Bob's high school in Gorham, Maine and took his class as a student.
• On Rob Has a Podcast, Bob revealed that he was actually an alternate for Gabon, and replaced eventual Nicaragua castaway Jimmy Johnson when the latter failed his medical exam.
• Bob is the oldest member of the original Kota tribe and the oldest man to compete on Gabon.
• Bob introduced the bowtie as a way of wearing a buff. So far, he is the only one to sport this style.
• Bob and Matty Whitmore are the only castaways on Gabon who made it to the merge without switching tribes.
• When Randy played Bob's fake Hidden Immunity Idol, Jeff Probst threw it into the fire (as is usual practice), much to the dislike of the viewers. However, once the Tribal Council was over, Jeff pulled it out so he could give it back to Bob at the Reunion Show.
• Bob is the second of three Sole Survivors to be involved in a tie vote at some point in the game. The first was Richard Hatch and the third was Natalie White.
• Bob is the first castaway to win the fire-making challenge at the final four and later win the season.
  • Bob is the only Sole Survivor to win the fire-making challenge before the forced fire-making format was introduced in Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers.
• Bob is the oldest finalist at time of filming, being 57 when he competed on Gabon.
• Bob is currently the oldest Survivor winner. Bob was 57 years, 9 months and 20 days old when he was declared the Sole Survivor.
• Bob is the first Sole Survivor to also win the Fan Favorite Award. He would be followed by J.T. Thomas, Rob Mariano, and Kim Spradlin.
  • Bob is the only one of the group who didn't return for another season.

References

Preceded by Micronesia Parvati Shallow

Sole Survivor Titleholder Gabon Bob Crowley

Succeeded by Tocantins J.T. Thomas

Survivor: Gabon Castaways
Ace Kota	Bob Kota	Charlie Kota	Corinne Kota	Crystal Fang	Dan Fang	GC Fang	Gillian Fang	Jacquie Kota
Kelly Kota	Ken Fang	Marcus Kota	Matty Fang	Michelle Fang	Paloma Kota	Randy Fang	Sugar Kota	Susie Fang