{"id":252887,"date":"2026-04-16T17:15:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T17:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/252887\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T17:15:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T17:15:08","slug":"robert-cluck-former-mayor-who-brought-cowboys-to-arlington-died","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/252887\/","title":{"rendered":"Robert Cluck, former mayor who brought Cowboys to Arlington, died"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr. Robert Cluck, the former Arlington mayor who brought the Dallas Cowboys<\/a> to the city, died Tuesday. He was 87.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Arlington has lost a true visionary\u2026 ” Mayor Jim Ross said in an\u00a0obituary published <\/a>on the city’s website. \u201cHis ability to build partnerships and see the community\u2019s future potential fundamentally changed our trajectory. We are a more vibrant, competitive, and world-class city today because of his bold leadership and belief in Arlington<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cluck\u00a0was born in Cisco on March 20, 1939, and attended Southern Methodist University, followed by The University of Texas Southwestern Medical School. He served two years as a general medical officer in the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam War and was stationed in the Philippines.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He served as Arlington’s mayor from 2003 to 2015.<\/p>\n

His intro into politics came after he was injured in a motorcycle accident, forcing him to pause practice as an obstetrician-gynecologist,\u00a0Cluck said in a video interview he did with the city.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI go to work every day convinced I can help a lot of people. A lot of people achieve the American dream,\u201d he said in the video.<\/p>\n

As a prominent North Texas public health advocate, Cluck served as vice president of medical management at Harris Methodist Health Plan in Fort Worth, medical director at Arlington Memorial Hospital, and during his mayoral tenure, vice president of medical affairs at Texas Health Resources Arlington Memorial Hospital.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2010, he launched \u201cLet\u2019s Move with the Mayor\u201d<\/a> as an incentive for Arlington ISD students to get outside during the summer. Each student pledged to walk 10,000 steps a day, and the three walkers with the most steps attended a Texas Rangers game with\u00a0Cluck. He was also responsible for\u00a0CPaRlignton<\/a>, a program focused on improving cardiac arrest survival and implementation of the Public Access Defibrillator program. His work was noticed in 2011 when he received the President\u2019s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition Community Leadership Award.<\/p>\n

A conversation with Jerry Jones in 2001 on a possible new home for the Cowboys<\/a>, while\u00a0Cluck sat on the City Council, led to the creation of\u00a0AT&T Stadium<\/a> in 2009. Six years later, Jones named the stadium\u2019s atrium in his honor \u2013 Mayor Robert N. Cluck Atrium.<\/p>\n

Arlington\u2019s 73.8-acre Dr. Robert Cluck Linear Park opened in 2011 as a tribute to his influence on the city\u2019s development. He organized the Texas Cities for Clean Air Coalition and brought neighboring mayors together to discuss air quality issues, followed by actions to make Arlington greener and reduce the city\u2019s carbon footprint.<\/p>\n

According to the city\u2019s website, Cluck served on many boards and commissions, including the North Texas Super Bowl XLV Host Committee, Salvation Army Youth Education Town Advisory Council, The Women\u2019s Shelter Board, Junior League of Arlington Advisory Board, Arlington Convention and Visitors Bureau, Arlington Technology Incubator and the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives \u2013 Local Governments for Sustainability.<\/p>\n

Cluck is survived by his wife, Linda; daughters, Katherine Cluck Williams and Jennifer Cluck Bills; son, Robert Cluck, III; and grandchildren, Lindsay\u00a0Hardesty, Robert Austin Williams, Michaela Cluck and Payton Cluck.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dr. Robert Cluck, the former Arlington mayor who brought the Dallas Cowboys to the city, died Tuesday. He…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252888,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,152,151],"class_list":["post-252887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arlington","tag-arlington","tag-arlington-headlines","tag-arlington-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}