William ""Bill Swint Robinson

Mr. Robinson was a theater professor at Mesa State College.

He is survived by a brother, Carl Layne Robinson of Pinellas Park, Florida.

Memorial contributions to the Bill and Mai Robinson Scholarship Fund, Colorado Mesa University, 1100 North Ave., Grand Junction 81501; or Grand Valley Catholic Outreach, 245 S. 1st St., Grand Junction 81501.

Obituary for William “Bill” S. Robinson, DFA

January 14, 1923-March 29, 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

I, Bill (William S.) Robinson was born in Charleston, West Virginia, on Jan. 14, 1923, a rainy Sunday afternoon. I was the sixth child of a family of eight born to Kenna C. and Edith Lou

(Peters) Robinson in the same house as my siblings and my mother. The rainy Sunday afternoon created problems in my childhood days because I had a drunken uncle who referred to me as ""Billy Rainy Sunday."" After I started school at the age of five, no longer wanting to be called Billy Rainy Sunday, I took the name of William Swint Robinson, Swint being the name of the doctor who delivered me. People have also asked me about my interest in theatre. I was stimulated by stories my father told me about working at the old opera house in Charleston; that, and finding my grandfather’s trunk which contained costumes in it from a medicine show he traveled the country with, even reaching Cripple Creek, Colorado. As a child I spent much of my time putting on plays with the kids in the neighborhood. The first professional theatre I ever saw was Captain Billy Bryant's Show Boat seeing such melodramas as ""Over the Hill to the Poor House"" and ""East Lynn.""

I attended schools in Charleston West Virginia, graduating from high school in June 1940. Upon graduation I worked for two years and went into the U.S. Army in January 1943 and served 33

months in the Army as a Corporal in the European Theatre Operations. Having done training on radar in England for 11 months, I fell in love with the English Countryside and have remained an

Anglophile ever since. Upon discharge from the army I returned to Charleston and enrolled in Morris Harvey College, completing a BA in two and one-half years. Following my graduation from college I moved to New York City where I tried my fame and fortune on Broadway with no success in either one. However, I was bright enough to get a MA degree from New York University. Unable to find a job in theatre, through the help of an Army buddy I found a job teaching high school drama in Minot, N.D. in 1951. I stayed there seven years and at that time I met the woman who became my wife, Mai Nagatomo, and we were married on June 15, 1957. Mai became the catalyst that ensured my success. She was an honored and respected English professor at Mesa College for thirty years. Upon our retirements my wife and I traveled extensively all over the world and enjoyed sharing our lives with friends, former students and family. My wife, Mai passed away in February, 1996.

While teaching in Minot I would return east during the summers and work at the Newport Casino Summer Theatre, in Newport, R.I. In 1958, Mai and I left North Dakota, moved to Denver and I enrolled in the University of Denver to begin work on a Ph.D. in Theatre. In 1960 there was an opening for a Speech and Drama teacher at Mesa Junior College and Horace Wubben offered me a job. We came to Grand Junction with the intention of staying for one year; instead, I have finished up my working days here, a total of 50 plus years. During my tenure at Mesa I worked diligently to build a viable and worthwhile theatre program for the college, students and the community. After the completion of the theatre in 1971 and with the encouragement of The Daily Sentinel, and my co-worker, Perry Carmichael, I established a summer theatre at the Mesa College, which was an integral part of the Theatre program for 30 years.

As a result of my work I have been given many honors such as the Larry Tajari Award, a state award for excellence in drama. The Grand Junction Business and Professional Women gave Perry and me their Community Award for the creation of the Summer Theatre. I received the MSC Distinguished Faculty Award in 1986, and received the Museum of Western Colorado Living Resource Award (1993). Also in 1993 the Theatre where I had crafted my art for so many years, in the Walter Walker Fine Arts Building, was renamed the Robinson Theatre, becoming one of the most gratifying highlights of my teaching and performance career. However sweet, this honor was made even sweeter in 2003 when friends hired local GJ artist, Jim Hutton, to paint my portrait to hang in the same lobby. In 1996 I was surprised and delighted to receive the Governor's Award for Excellence in Arts, and a final and ultimate highlight in my life's academic experience came in June, 2009, when I was awarded an Honorary Doctorate (DMA) from the University of Denver for my lifelong work in Theatre. This was the culmination of the graduate work I started there in 1956 and never completed.

Growing up during the depression I learned the need for people to help each other and for that reason after retiring I have tried to help in any way I could by volunteering my time, services and money for organizations such as: Community Food Bank, Grand Valley Catholic Outreach, American Cancer Society, Grand Junction Visitor Center, Red Cross, Salvation Army, Western Equality and, of course, my work with the Democratic Party. I have been a long time member of the ACLU and the Southern Poverty Law Center.

I am survived by one brother, Carl (LaNona) Robinson of Pinelles Park, Fla.; sisters-in-law, Ida Robinson of Charleston, West Virginia, and brother-in-law, George Hartman of St. Albans, West

Virginia, and numerous nieces and nephews; and friends far too numerous to mention; and last but never least, my beloved cats, Pretty Boy and Honey Boy. I have requested that I be cremated and that my ashes be returned to West Virginia. If you would like you can make a gift to one of the following organizations, or heck, just go and have a drink in my name!

Catholic Outreach

245 S. 1st St.

Grand Junction,

CO 81501

The Bill and Mai Robinson Scholarship Fund Colorado Mesa University/CMU Foundation

(or to the newly established)

Bill and Mai Robinson Endowed Lecture Fund Colorado Mesa University/CMU Foundation

1100 North Ave.

Grand Junction, CO 81501

I have led a full and satisfying life sharing it with friends and relatives, and as Blanche says in A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE: ""I have always depended on the kindness of strangers."" I leave this world saying to all as Emily says in OUR TOWN: ""Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it? ----every, every minute?"" And from the musical, FINIAN'S RAINBOW:

""Look to the rainbow, and follow the fellow who follows a dream.""

Love, Bill

There will be a Celebration of Dr. Robinson's long and fruitful life at The Robinson Theatre /Colorado Mesa University, on May 23, 2015 beginning at 1:00pm. His family and close friends invite you to join us for this fond remembrance and celebration of his wonderful life.

Whether it was the amaryllis flowers inside his Grand Junction home or the theatre department at the former Mesa Junior College and Mesa State College, Bill Robinson was always growing things.

Robinson died at home in his sleep over the weekend. He was 92.

“I don’t even know how to describe him, because there is no one else in my life like him,” said longtime friend and former colleague Maggie Robb. “Never will be.”

As chairman of the school’s theatre department from 1960 to 1988, Robinson — believed to be the school’s first theatre chairman — left a lasting impression on those who worked alongside him, took classes with him or simply befriended him as the institution transformed from a junior college with minimal theatre amenities to a four-year program with a dedicated performing arts center.

The school named the 600-seat theatre used for large university stage productions The William S. Robinson Theatre in 1993, as a sign of gratitude for his 28 years as chairman of the theatre department.

“I don’t think I’m alone in my admiration for him,” said Robb, who Robinson hired in the mid-1970s to teach theatre. “There would probably be no theatre department now if it had not been for him. … He was a wonderful teacher. The students loved him. The faculty loved him. … He was such a nurturing person. He had a way of just seeing the potential in people and working to help people fill their potential.”

A portrait of Robinson in his trademark bow tie hangs outside the theatre entrance.

“Thank you, Mr. Robinson, for your years of dedication, your example, and for all that you have given to this fine department and theatre that bears your name,” read a portion of the statement the Colorado Mesa University Department of Theatre Arts posted to its Facebook page.

David Cox, a current CMU theatre professor who specializes in many technical aspects of theatre such as set building, studied with Robinson and later worked with him. Cox credits Robinson for instilling in him a love, almost a need, to travel while he was in school.

“He said, ‘If you are going to design shows, you need to see these things,’” Cox remembered. A trip to Europe was planned while Cox was a student. Robinson repeatedly asked Cox if he was going to see firsthand the architecture and design of places he might one day build. Cox couldn’t afford to go. Robinson found patrons to pay for half of Cox’s trip.

In fact, helping students was a priority for both Robinson and his late wife Mai. The couple created several scholarships and donated generously to the college through the years, said Colorado Mesa University spokeswoman Dana Nunn.

Rachel Nelson Fortner, another former student of Robinson’s and the director of Grand Junction’s A Pocket Full of Plays, an online publisher of original plays and musicals for young performers, said the information she teaches to children “...is all stuff he taught me. I became the teacher and director I am today based on so much info that he shared.”

Through the years, Robinson, who also served in the U.S. Army during World War II, received numerous accolades and awards for his contribution to the arts.

Before his portrait dedication at Mesa State in 2002, Robb compiled a list.

In 1966, he was given the Larry Tajiri Award for the idea and plans that led to what is now called the Moss Performing Arts Center, which houses Robinson Theatre.

In 1973, Robinson received the Grand Junction Community Service Award for the establishment of the Mesa Summer Repertory Theatre.

In 1986, he was given the Mesa State College Distinguished Faculty Award.

In 1993, he was given the Museum of Western Colorado Living Resource Award.

In 1996, Robinson received the Colorado Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts.

He also served on the Colorado Council on the Arts from 1981 to 1987.

Furthermore, Robinson brought guest artists to Grand Junction to work and perform with students and often traveled to New York City to stay abreast on the latest plays and happenings on Broadway.

Closer to home, however, he was known for throwing parties, reading books, talking politics and growing flowers. On January 27, nearly two weeks after he turned 92, and nearly two months before he died, he posted photos of his amaryllis flowers on his Facebook wall.

“He was just one of a kind,” Robb said. “I can’t put it into words how I feel about him. He blessed everybody’s life who he came in contact with.”

Robinson feted for 90th birthday; he raised curtain high for CMU theater

Bill Robinson, center, greets some of the many friends and former colleagues and students who attended a celebration of his 90th birthday Sunday in the Colorado Mesa University Ballroom. Robinson was head of the theater department at the school from 1960 to 1988, as Mesa Junior College became a four-year institution.

By Melinda Mawdsley

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Bill spent three years in the U.S. Army “and was fortunate to be stationed near London for about eight months. Naturally, all his pay went for theatre tickets.”

-Excerpt from Bill Robinson’s bio in a 1987 Mesa College play program

If Colorado Mesa University’s theater department is a tree, Bill Robinson is the roots because, as several people explained, he is not only the reason CMU’s theater department has grown, he is the reason it exists at all.

Robinson was honored Sunday during a 90th birthday party on campus, bringing together hundreds of family and friends to shower gratitude and affection upon the man former students call “a second father” and former colleagues called “generous” or “tireless.”

Clad in a pink sportcoat and his trademark bow tie, Robinson shook as many hands as possible Sunday afternoon, but shook his head when the crowd serenaded him with “Happy Birthday,” as if he didn’t deserve it.

“There will never be anyone like him,” said longtime friend and former colleague Cheo Humphries, who taught physical education at the school from 1962 until 1988.

Robinson, who was given a clean bill of health three months ago after being diagnosed with throat cancer, was head of the Grand Junction school’s theater department from 1960 until 1988, watching the Grand Junction school grow from one building as Mesa Junior College to a four-year school called Mesa State College.

It is now, of course, a university with a thriving theater department that performs in The William S. Robinson Theatre.

“That was a great honor,” he said of having the theater named after him in the mid-1990s.

A longtime lover of theater, Robinson poured his theatrical passion and love of people into his job at-then Mesa Junior College and when the time came for him to return to his native West Virginia or remain in western Colorado post-retirement, he opted to stay here.

“This was home,” he said.

On Sunday, then, it became necessary for family and friends scattered across the country to travel to Grand Junction to celebrate with Robinson.

Some traveled from the East Coast. Some came from the West Coast. Some came from prestigious jobs they credit Robinson for teaching them the skills to have.

Tee Scatuorchio, Mesa Junior College student from 1970-72, flew to Colorado from New York City, where he owns a production company called Tee and Jam.

I’m so excited to be here,” he said. “I feel like Bill and his wife (Mai) taught us so many life lessons I still carry with me today.”

Although John Byers did not graduate with Scatuorchio, Byers, a student at Mesa College from 1983-87, was equally excited about attending Robinson’s birthday party Sunday.

Byers is the company manager for Cirque de Soleil “O” at the Bellagio casino and hotel in Las Vegas.

“He has impacted so many lives,” Byers said. “He’s the root for a lot of us in a professional sense and in a non-professional sense, too. He’s like a second father.”