Eddie Robinson hadn’t yet started on his Citizen of the West acceptance speech last month, but, pardon the pun, he is guaranteed to milk it for all it’s worth, said his older brother and co-winner.
“He never lets me talk,” said Dick Robinson, 78, of his 76-year-old brother who shares the title of chief executive of Robinson Dairy in Lakewood. “He tells all the jokes, but his jokes are awful.”
The brothers are used to sharing the stage. They joined the Colorado Business Hall of Fame together in 2000 and have accepted awards of appreciation by the bucket.
“They don’t give you these; you pay for them,” Eddie Robinson said as the brothers browsed a full lobby wall of photos, showing them with a who’s who of American politics at campaign fundraisers.
The differences between the close-knit brothers began to emerge more clearly than with who tells the jokes.
“He wouldn’t have his picture made with (Bill) Clinton,” Democrat-leaning Eddie said of his conservative brother, who appears more at ease in photos with Ronald Reagan and both Presidents Bush.
“I haven’t gotten my Obama (picture) framed yet,” Eddie said, as if elbowing his brother.
The dairy magnates are unusually fitting Citizens of the West, with its acronym of COW, which honors Westerners who have left their brand.
“They represent the spirit of service and the most compassionate side of human nature,” said National Western Stock Show & Rodeo president and chief executive Pat Grant. “They’ve made their name in the Colorado ag business, but they represent much more. They represent the Western spirit.”
Typical of native Westerners, the Robinsons aren’t men who tan in the limelight. When told the charity banquet in their honor had sold out in probably record time, Eddie couldn’t have been more unimpressed with himself.
“Ah, that thing sells out every year,” he said, but with a sly smile. “We go every year.”
The pair will be feted Wednesday night at a dinner at the Hyatt Regency Hotel. Proceeds benefit the National Western Scholarship Trust, which finances 74 scholarships to colleges in Colorado and Wyoming.
On their own, the Robinson brothers have paid for seven scholarships a year for seven years to Colorado State University’s School of Agricultural Sciences.
Dick is pleased to be part of the fabric of the stock show.
“The stock show is an institution,” he said. “It’s part of what Denver is, and it always will be.”
Robinson milk has been a Colorado institution for 124 years. The brothers’ great-grandfather, Lewis Robinson, founded Robinson Dairy in 1885.
Both brothers graduated from East High School, attended Colorado A&M (which later became CSU) and served overseas in the Army. Dick Robinson was decorated with the Silver Star, Bronze Star and Purple Heart.
Dick joined the family business in 1954, Eddie in 1956, when the dairy was “up to its eyeballs in debt,” Dick said.
Long before that, they had loaded and driven trucks and done every job imaginable.
“When we joined the dairy, we could operate every piece of equipment we had,” Dick said. “Now I couldn’t touch a thing; everything is so technical and computerized.”
Their children have moved out of the dairy business, but the diligent fathers haven’t.
“Nobody in our family ever retires,” Eddie said. “Dad died when he was 82, and he was here every day right up to the end.”
The grandfather, Hyman Robinson, worked until he was 93.
Dick then violated his own rule about leaving the jokes to his kid brother.
“Eddie would retire, but his wife won’t let him,” he said, drawing a feigned eye roll from his brother.
About that speech for Wednesday night, Eddie wasn’t tipping his hand or raising the stakes by promising too much.
“I have to wait and see what happens between now and then,” he said.
Joey Bunch: 303-954-1174 or jbunch@denverpost.com
Honorees through the years
2009 Dick and Eddie Robinson
2008 Hank Brown
2007 Cortlandt S. Dietler
2006 Sue Anschutz-Rodgers
2005 George Marvin Beeman
2004 H.A. “Dave” & Jean True Family
2003 William J. (Bill) Hybl
2002 Albert C. Yates
2001 Ned & Mary Belle Grant Family
2000 Justice Byron White
1999 W.D. “Bill” Farr
1998 Daniel L. Ritchie
1997 Brownie & Thurman “Fum” McGraw
1996 Cliff Hansen
1995 Ben R. Houston
1994 Rollin D. Barnard
1993 Dick Cheney
1992 William K. Coors
1991 Kenneth W. Monfort
1990 Alan K. Simpson
1989 Gov. John & Ann Love
1987 Charles C. Gates
1986 Nicholas Robert Petry
1985 William H. McNichols Jr.
1984 Allan & Gerald Phipps
1983 Pete Smythe
1982 Aksel Nielsen
1981 Ed H. Honnen
1980 Frank H. Ricketson Jr.
1979 Willard Simms
1978 Robert “Red” Fenwick
