He spent much of his life as an advocate for the aging, so perhaps it wasn’t surprising that few people aged as nobly as Robert Robinson.
Known as Bob or Robby to his friends, Robinson became a champion for senior citizens in Colorado and nationally. He helped launch the Colorado Commission on Aging, pushed for a law to discourage abuse of elders and even developed a ranking system he called the “Robinson Scorecard,” which evaluated legislators’ performance on senior issues.
He died five minutes after midnight on Jan. 17, his 96th birthday, at the Colorado State Veterans Home at Fitzsimons.
“It was basically old age,” said his son, Russell.
Although he had a stretch of health issues in the 1970s, including heart bypass operations, Robinson, who quit smoking at that point, pressed on for decades despite taking disability retirement in 1976.
“Turned out he just kept on living,” said Bill Hanna, a longtime friend and colleague. “I don’t think it was his heart that gave out.”
Senior centers, meals programs, transportation issues — if it involved aging in Colorado, Robinson was at the center of it, Hanna recalled. He served as president of the National Association of State Units on Aging, where he addressed Congress on aging issues.
“He was Mr. Senior Citizen — and the thing about Bob, he didn’t have an ego in all of this,” Hanna said. “You knew he was boss, but he didn’t do anything for his self-aggrandizement.”
He volunteered for aging-related duties and became the founding director of the Colorado Senior Lobby.
Former state Sen. Dottie Wham recalled that Robinson “beat on me a lot” to get her support on issues, but she grew to regard him warmly.
“He was devoted to the work, first of all,” Wham said. “He was one of the first in the field that really understood some of the needs seniors had and tried to find ways to meet them.”
Ultimately, they collaborated on the bill to stem elder abuse.
“At the time,” she said, “no one wanted to believe people were robbing Grandma and doing kinds of things we know they do, taking money and things from older people and in some instances abusing them physically.
“I think that was one he and I worked hardest on.”
Robinson remained active well into his 90s and didn’t give up driving until he was 92. Family members hosted a 95th-birthday party for him they dubbed “A Distinguished Life.”
“He’d call it a wonderful life,” said Hanna, “a remarkable life where one thing led to another which led to another that allowed him to be in a place where he could influence national and state policy and programs for veterans, for seniors, for all kinds of other people.”
Born in Cambridge, Mass., Robinson was an orphan taken in by a foster family and never lost his Boston accent or his affinity for the Red Sox and New England Patriots.
“If you’re familiar with Bostonians, I wouldn’t say he was cold, but very reserved and I think somewhat humble,” said Russell Robinson. “He never bragged about any of his accomplishments. He let his actions speak for him.”
As a kid, Robinson worked as a copy boy for The Christian Science Monitor before moving to Florida to work in the hotel industry.
He joined the Army in 1941 and met his future wife, Genevieve, while stationed in Montana. They were married for 65 years until her death in 2009, and they reared two children — Linda, of Istanbul, and Russell, a retired meat cutter in Denver.
Robinson earned a Bronze Star in World War II with the Army 84th Infantry and fought at the Battle of the Bulge. He remained active in veterans issues through the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion and other organizations.
After returning to Montana after the war, he got a job as a station agent with now-defunct Western Airlines. He moved to Denver, where he worked at the city jail and later with the Denver Housing Authority, where he began his advocacy work on issues related to aging.
“It was a series of serendipitous events that got him to the point of being such an influence on the field of aging,” Hanna said. “He was there at the beginning.”
Kevin Simpson: 303-954-1739 or ksimpson@denverpost.com
