Robin Jane Adair was born in wartime Los Angeles, to her parents John Dale Adair, and Violet Pritchard Adair. From all accounts, Robin ruled the roost. She was charming, curious, and delightful, but with a very strong will to do things her own way. A red-headed personality, like her father, they thought.
Her family welcomed a little brother for Robin in 1945: Robert John Adair. In Bob, she found someone who would follow along and take her instructions. Or so she thoughtBob had a gift for interpersonal relations and was completely affable.
Robin was brilliant, sharp-witted, and determined to rise to the top. Her mother and grandmother worked hard to polish her and succeeded in getting her to adopt a code of ladylike behaviorultimately landing her at Scripps College in Claremont CA, a womens college she held dear to her dying day.
Although Robin was a dedicated scholar, she struggled with a learning disability all of her life. Naturally, this was a stumbling block for her, because she came from a family of readers, and she had so much ambition. A friend tells a story about a presentation she made in seventh grade: Robin presented a new alphabet she invented for phonetic spellingand tried to convince everyone to adopt her system. Shortly after that, she resigned to the Roman alphabet, and jumped to reading novels by the end of the summer. Books and learning were her haven, just as they had been for her mother. Robin tried her hand at writing short stories, poems, and family histories, but never published anything.
It was in Claremont that Robin met her future husband on the first day of college. According to family lore, she was out on a plaza with some friends discussing the creation of a roaring 20s party when James Eddy Warjone and his friends chatted the girls up. She mentioned that she had heard that one of the freshmen at Claremont Mens College had a Model T, and would it not be great to have that at the party! Jim was able to step up, and drove the T up onto the grounds for the party. Thus, a long courtship began.
Robin and Jim were married the year after graduation, in 1966, and moved from Los Angeles to Seattle to start a new life together. Sadly, their well-planned wedding was cancelled due to the sudden death of Jims father. The marriage nevertheless took place, but under altered circumstances that required their sharing the church with Fred Astaires daughter, whose marriage was also taking place there, necessitating their having to split the flowers!
Robin and Jim welcomed a daughter, Anne, in 1968, a daughter, Virginia, in 1970, and a son, Hans, in 1974. They lived in Broadmoor, down the street from Jims mother, Mary Ann Nickum. Mary Ann would get calls from neighbors when her grandchildren were spotted on the golf course or around the neighborhood, being kids in a neighborhood full of senior citizens. Mary Ann knew most of town, so this was a constant source of amusement or strife, depending upon which side of the cocktail hour the phone call came.
Robin inherited a tremendous work ethic, an unbounded sense of community, and a desire to be useful from her parents. And having married into "Society," Robin was intent upon employing these characteristics to live up to the family name as well as to recover perceived lost family fortunes. Robin worked creatively and hard at everything, and was a natural leadervery persuasive, articulate, and logical.
Robin was an able seamstress, noted for designing and sewing clothes, and costumes. As a teenager, she was expected to take the allowance her family gave her and generate her own clothes. This sewing skill was put to good use, making costumes for community pageants: notably for the Epiphany Parish of Seattles Christmas Pageant, which are still in use today. She made many trophy-winning troupe costumes for Seattle Yacht Clubs Opening Day (of the Boating Season) Parades. She also made inventive, customized costumes for theme parties and Halloween. Most notable of these inventions was a "Cookie Monster" costume designed for her (then second grade) daughter, Anne, which was then modified for her husband, and later modified by her son, Hans for wear in college.
Robins love for pageantry made her a great party planner, and she employed herself as a fundraiser and coordinator for many non-profits, Planned Parenthood, among them. She took the Junior League of Seattle Volunteer training as a young society wife, and used that skill to build fundraising events at many newly minted independent schools in the 1970s and 80s in Seattle. She and her husband contributed efforts to Epiphany School, University Prep, Seattle Country Day, and Overlake School, where they ensured dyslexia tutoring for their kids and countless others.
Robin had a strong sense of community. She was an intrinsic networker, with practical experience to offer. She once loaned her cat to nurse in the window of the Madison Park Hardware store. She had a gift for learning what people needed and getting it for them. For this reason, Robin was a great mentor to many aspiring young people. For instance, it brought Robin great joy to find young girls to attend her Womens College. She recruited many of her daughters peers to go to Claremont. She also enjoyed mentoring young entrepreneurs, attorneys, and parents of young children. Many people remember her sanguine advice and her wish to help them. As she aged, her skill with money did not increase, and so best to just take the advice and not the money. She wanted to be a great figure in the community, but the small-town fabric she assumed was not here in the city.
Robin had an interest in Political Science and Political Philosophy she carried with her all her life. This started when she read a book called "Slan," about a character who overcame all odds to thrive. While in College, she studied Political Philosophy with Martin Diamond and was a house officer for her dormitory. Later, Robin attempted to win public office on a populist platform, earning 15,000 votes around the state. Sadly, she was running for national office. That number of votes would have gotten her into the State Senate!
In the 1980s, Robins husbands attentions went increasingly to his work life in a family company. She tried to salvage the marriage with therapies, and a trip to Residence Twelve, but was not able to reconcile with her husbandtheir marriage dissolved officially in 1990. To compound the loss of that time, Robins parents were dying in Southern California. Robin visited them often, while trying to get her own life started. Her own children had difficulty launching into adulthood with both parents debilitated by their own psychic processes.
Robin tried to return to success. She tried a return to sales, since she had some success a clerk at Bullocks Beverly Hills, as a young woman. Utilizing knowledge about fine things, Robin stocked an antiques booth in Edmonds. This business required more attention than she had to give, and so it failed. Much of her inventory was moved into her house, where she had trouble getting rid of it. Her children helped her on many occasions to sort and discard items which were overwhelming her, but her anxiety trumped her efforts to get clear.
Robin did travel the world during these years, which fulfilled a life-long wish of hers. She went to China, most of the Middle East and Mediterranean, and Europe with tours. She and her family were most fond of Greece, and she liked to tell people that she had visited there four times during her lifetime. Her home reflected worldly tastes, and her hospitality, even in grief, was warm and engaging.
Robin wanted to make a mark on the world, in a grand way. But she will be most remembered for the small ways in which she contributed. She was a terrific record keeper, with photographs, scrapbooks, and transcripts of family stories. She kept her kinship ties strong and built community wherever she went.
In the last decade of her life, Robin returned to Epiphany Parish of Seattle, her original community in Seattle. She appreciated being back to the Parish where she had first come as a young, bright thing to Seattle. She loved being remembered and appreciated, especially as her own memory was failing. Robin was a greeter at every Sunday service for years. She would dress to the nines and help in any way she could. They let her sit in on many Minions, and share her experience, and I know she felt valued and respected there.
The one thing Robin wanted me, as her daughter, and you, as a person who cares enough to read this long obituary, to know, as she was dying, was that she was sober. She worked very hard to be sober in the last three years of her life. She took responsibility for herself, and she worked to stay in community with people. Robin went back to make amends with people, even as her faculties were diminishing. I was able to see her as an adult, a woman who took charge of her choices, began to save money, and made an effort to in a desperate bid to care for other persons who were less capable than she in her Assisted Living community. I saw her grow in faith, and renew her graciousness, and celebrate the spirit of service with others.
In parting, I say, "May the Lord bless her and keep her. May she be without pain, may she be joyful. May she able to remember all her words and all her graces, and have the energy to make new friends. May she grow toward grace in eternal life. Keep Calm and Carry on, dear Mother. I am so proud of you, you died so bravely, so ethically. I wish you the best in your new adventure."
AKW 11/2/17
Her family welcomed a little brother for Robin in 1945: Robert John Adair. In Bob, she found someone who would follow along and take her instructions. Or so she thoughtBob had a gift for interpersonal relations and was completely affable.
Robin was brilliant, sharp-witted, and determined to rise to the top. Her mother and grandmother worked hard to polish her and succeeded in getting her to adopt a code of ladylike behaviorultimately landing her at Scripps College in Claremont CA, a womens college she held dear to her dying day.
Although Robin was a dedicated scholar, she struggled with a learning disability all of her life. Naturally, this was a stumbling block for her, because she came from a family of readers, and she had so much ambition. A friend tells a story about a presentation she made in seventh grade: Robin presented a new alphabet she invented for phonetic spellingand tried to convince everyone to adopt her system. Shortly after that, she resigned to the Roman alphabet, and jumped to reading novels by the end of the summer. Books and learning were her haven, just as they had been for her mother. Robin tried her hand at writing short stories, poems, and family histories, but never published anything.
It was in Claremont that Robin met her future husband on the first day of college. According to family lore, she was out on a plaza with some friends discussing the creation of a roaring 20s party when James Eddy Warjone and his friends chatted the girls up. She mentioned that she had heard that one of the freshmen at Claremont Mens College had a Model T, and would it not be great to have that at the party! Jim was able to step up, and drove the T up onto the grounds for the party. Thus, a long courtship began.
Robin and Jim were married the year after graduation, in 1966, and moved from Los Angeles to Seattle to start a new life together. Sadly, their well-planned wedding was cancelled due to the sudden death of Jims father. The marriage nevertheless took place, but under altered circumstances that required their sharing the church with Fred Astaires daughter, whose marriage was also taking place there, necessitating their having to split the flowers!
Robin and Jim welcomed a daughter, Anne, in 1968, a daughter, Virginia, in 1970, and a son, Hans, in 1974. They lived in Broadmoor, down the street from Jims mother, Mary Ann Nickum. Mary Ann would get calls from neighbors when her grandchildren were spotted on the golf course or around the neighborhood, being kids in a neighborhood full of senior citizens. Mary Ann knew most of town, so this was a constant source of amusement or strife, depending upon which side of the cocktail hour the phone call came.
Robin inherited a tremendous work ethic, an unbounded sense of community, and a desire to be useful from her parents. And having married into "Society," Robin was intent upon employing these characteristics to live up to the family name as well as to recover perceived lost family fortunes. Robin worked creatively and hard at everything, and was a natural leadervery persuasive, articulate, and logical.
Robin was an able seamstress, noted for designing and sewing clothes, and costumes. As a teenager, she was expected to take the allowance her family gave her and generate her own clothes. This sewing skill was put to good use, making costumes for community pageants: notably for the Epiphany Parish of Seattles Christmas Pageant, which are still in use today. She made many trophy-winning troupe costumes for Seattle Yacht Clubs Opening Day (of the Boating Season) Parades. She also made inventive, customized costumes for theme parties and Halloween. Most notable of these inventions was a "Cookie Monster" costume designed for her (then second grade) daughter, Anne, which was then modified for her husband, and later modified by her son, Hans for wear in college.
Robins love for pageantry made her a great party planner, and she employed herself as a fundraiser and coordinator for many non-profits, Planned Parenthood, among them. She took the Junior League of Seattle Volunteer training as a young society wife, and used that skill to build fundraising events at many newly minted independent schools in the 1970s and 80s in Seattle. She and her husband contributed efforts to Epiphany School, University Prep, Seattle Country Day, and Overlake School, where they ensured dyslexia tutoring for their kids and countless others.
Robin had a strong sense of community. She was an intrinsic networker, with practical experience to offer. She once loaned her cat to nurse in the window of the Madison Park Hardware store. She had a gift for learning what people needed and getting it for them. For this reason, Robin was a great mentor to many aspiring young people. For instance, it brought Robin great joy to find young girls to attend her Womens College. She recruited many of her daughters peers to go to Claremont. She also enjoyed mentoring young entrepreneurs, attorneys, and parents of young children. Many people remember her sanguine advice and her wish to help them. As she aged, her skill with money did not increase, and so best to just take the advice and not the money. She wanted to be a great figure in the community, but the small-town fabric she assumed was not here in the city.
Robin had an interest in Political Science and Political Philosophy she carried with her all her life. This started when she read a book called "Slan," about a character who overcame all odds to thrive. While in College, she studied Political Philosophy with Martin Diamond and was a house officer for her dormitory. Later, Robin attempted to win public office on a populist platform, earning 15,000 votes around the state. Sadly, she was running for national office. That number of votes would have gotten her into the State Senate!
In the 1980s, Robins husbands attentions went increasingly to his work life in a family company. She tried to salvage the marriage with therapies, and a trip to Residence Twelve, but was not able to reconcile with her husbandtheir marriage dissolved officially in 1990. To compound the loss of that time, Robins parents were dying in Southern California. Robin visited them often, while trying to get her own life started. Her own children had difficulty launching into adulthood with both parents debilitated by their own psychic processes.
Robin tried to return to success. She tried a return to sales, since she had some success a clerk at Bullocks Beverly Hills, as a young woman. Utilizing knowledge about fine things, Robin stocked an antiques booth in Edmonds. This business required more attention than she had to give, and so it failed. Much of her inventory was moved into her house, where she had trouble getting rid of it. Her children helped her on many occasions to sort and discard items which were overwhelming her, but her anxiety trumped her efforts to get clear.
Robin did travel the world during these years, which fulfilled a life-long wish of hers. She went to China, most of the Middle East and Mediterranean, and Europe with tours. She and her family were most fond of Greece, and she liked to tell people that she had visited there four times during her lifetime. Her home reflected worldly tastes, and her hospitality, even in grief, was warm and engaging.
Robin wanted to make a mark on the world, in a grand way. But she will be most remembered for the small ways in which she contributed. She was a terrific record keeper, with photographs, scrapbooks, and transcripts of family stories. She kept her kinship ties strong and built community wherever she went.
In the last decade of her life, Robin returned to Epiphany Parish of Seattle, her original community in Seattle. She appreciated being back to the Parish where she had first come as a young, bright thing to Seattle. She loved being remembered and appreciated, especially as her own memory was failing. Robin was a greeter at every Sunday service for years. She would dress to the nines and help in any way she could. They let her sit in on many Minions, and share her experience, and I know she felt valued and respected there.
The one thing Robin wanted me, as her daughter, and you, as a person who cares enough to read this long obituary, to know, as she was dying, was that she was sober. She worked very hard to be sober in the last three years of her life. She took responsibility for herself, and she worked to stay in community with people. Robin went back to make amends with people, even as her faculties were diminishing. I was able to see her as an adult, a woman who took charge of her choices, began to save money, and made an effort to in a desperate bid to care for other persons who were less capable than she in her Assisted Living community. I saw her grow in faith, and renew her graciousness, and celebrate the spirit of service with others.
In parting, I say, "May the Lord bless her and keep her. May she be without pain, may she be joyful. May she able to remember all her words and all her graces, and have the energy to make new friends. May she grow toward grace in eternal life. Keep Calm and Carry on, dear Mother. I am so proud of you, you died so bravely, so ethically. I wish you the best in your new adventure."
AKW 11/2/17
Robin Jane Adair was born in wartime Los Angeles, to her parents John Dale Adair, and Violet Pritchard Adair. From all accounts, Robin ruled the roost. She was charming, curious, and delightful, but with a very strong will to do things her own way. A red-headed personality, like her father, they thought.
Her family welcomed a little brother for Robin in 1945: Robert John Adair. In Bob, she found someone who would follow along and take her instructions. Or so she thoughtBob had a gift for interpersonal relations and was completely affable.
Robin was brilliant, sharp-witted, and determined to rise to the top. Her mother and grandmother worked hard to polish her and succeeded in getting her to adopt a code of ladylike behaviorultimately landing her at Scripps College in Claremont CA, a womens college she held dear to her dying day.
Although Robin was a dedicated scholar, she struggled with a learning disability all of her life. Naturally, this was a stumbling block for her, because she came from a family of readers, and she had so much ambition. A friend tells a story about a presentation she made in seventh grade: Robin presented a new alphabet she invented for phonetic spellingand tried to convince everyone to adopt her system. Shortly after that, she resigned to the Roman alphabet, and jumped to reading novels by the end of the summer. Books and learning were her haven, just as they had been for her mother. Robin tried her hand at writing short stories, poems, and family histories, but never published anything.
It was in Claremont that Robin met her future husband on the first day of college. According to family lore, she was out on a plaza with some friends discussing the creation of a roaring 20s party when James Eddy Warjone and his friends chatted the girls up. She mentioned that she had heard that one of the freshmen at Claremont Mens College had a Model T, and would it not be great to have that at the party! Jim was able to step up, and drove the T up onto the grounds for the party. Thus, a long courtship began.
Robin and Jim were married the year after graduation, in 1966, and moved from Los Angeles to Seattle to start a new life together. Sadly, their well-planned wedding was cancelled due to the sudden death of Jims father. The marriage nevertheless took place, but under altered circumstances that required their sharing the church with Fred Astaires daughter, whose marriage was also taking place there, necessitating their having to split the flowers!
Robin and Jim welcomed a daughter, Anne, in 1968, a daughter, Virginia, in 1970, and a son, Hans, in 1974. They lived in Broadmoor, down the street from Jims mother, Mary Ann Nickum. Mary Ann would get calls from neighbors when her grandchildren were spotted on the golf course or around the neighborhood, being kids in a neighborhood full of senior citizens. Mary Ann knew most of town, so this was a constant source of amusement or strife, depending upon which side of the cocktail hour the phone call came.
Robin inherited a tremendous work ethic, an unbounded sense of community, and a desire to be useful from her parents. And having married into "Society," Robin was intent upon employing these characteristics to live up to the family name as well as to recover perceived lost family fortunes. Robin worked creatively and hard at everything, and was a natural leadervery persuasive, articulate, and logical.
Robin was an able seamstress, noted for designing and sewing clothes, and costumes. As a teenager, she was expected to take the allowance her family gave her and generate her own clothes. This sewing skill was put to good use, making costumes for community pageants: notably for the Epiphany Parish of Seattles Christmas Pageant, which are still in use today. She made many trophy-winning troupe costumes for Seattle Yacht Clubs Opening Day (of the Boating Season) Parades. She also made inventive, customized costumes for theme parties and Halloween. Most notable of these inventions was a "Cookie Monster" costume designed for her (then second grade) daughter, Anne, which was then modified for her husband, and later modified by her son, Hans for wear in college.
Robins love for pageantry made her a great party planner, and she employed herself as a fundraiser and coordinator for many non-profits, Planned Parenthood, among them. She took the Junior League of Seattle Volunteer training as a young society wife, and used that skill to build fundraising events at many newly minted independent schools in the 1970s and 80s in Seattle. She and her husband contributed efforts to Epiphany School, University Prep, Seattle Country Day, and Overlake School, where they ensured dyslexia tutoring for their kids and countless others.
Robin had a strong sense of community. She was an intrinsic networker, with practical experience to offer. She once loaned her cat to nurse in the window of the Madison Park Hardware store. She had a gift for learning what people needed and getting it for them. For this reason, Robin was a great mentor to many aspiring young people. For instance, it brought Robin great joy to find young girls to attend her Womens College. She recruited many of her daughters peers to go to Claremont. She also enjoyed mentoring young entrepreneurs, attorneys, and parents of young children. Many people remember her sanguine advice and her wish to help them. As she aged, her skill with money did not increase, and so best to just take the advice and not the money. She wanted to be a great figure in the community, but the small-town fabric she assumed was not here in the city.
Robin had an interest in Political Science and Political Philosophy she carried with her all her life. This started when she read a book called "Slan," about a character who overcame all odds to thrive. While in College, she studied Political Philosophy with Martin Diamond and was a house officer for her dormitory. Later, Robin attempted to win public office on a populist platform, earning 15,000 votes around the state. Sadly, she was running for national office. That number of votes would have gotten her into the State Senate!
In the 1980s, Robins husbands attentions went increasingly to his work life in a family company. She tried to salvage the marriage with therapies, and a trip to Residence Twelve, but was not able to reconcile with her husbandtheir marriage dissolved officially in 1990. To compound the loss of that time, Robins parents were dying in Southern California. Robin visited them often, while trying to get her own life started. Her own children had difficulty launching into adulthood with both parents debilitated by their own psychic processes.
Robin tried to return to success. She tried a return to sales, since she had some success a clerk at Bullocks Beverly Hills, as a young woman. Utilizing knowledge about fine things, Robin stocked an antiques booth in Edmonds. This business required more attention than she had to give, and so it failed. Much of her inventory was moved into her house, where she had trouble getting rid of it. Her children helped her on many occasions to sort and discard items which were overwhelming her, but her anxiety trumped her efforts to get clear.
Robin did travel the world during these years, which fulfilled a life-long wish of hers. She went to China, most of the Middle East and Mediterranean, and Europe with tours. She and her family were most fond of Greece, and she liked to tell people that she had visited there four times during her lifetime. Her home reflected worldly tastes, and her hospitality, even in grief, was warm and engaging.
Robin wanted to make a mark on the world, in a grand way. But she will be most remembered for the small ways in which she contributed. She was a terrific record keeper, with photographs, scrapbooks, and transcripts of family stories. She kept her kinship ties strong and built community wherever she went.
In the last decade of her life, Robin returned to Epiphany Parish of Seattle, her original community in Seattle. She appreciated being back to the Parish where she had first come as a young, bright thing to Seattle. She loved being remembered and appreciated, especially as her own memory was failing. Robin was a greeter at every Sunday service for years. She would dress to the nines and help in any way she could. They let her sit in on many Minions, and share her experience, and I know she felt valued and respected there.
The one thing Robin wanted me, as her daughter, and you, as a person who cares enough to read this long obituary, to know, as she was dying, was that she was sober. She worked very hard to be sober in the last three years of her life. She took responsibility for herself, and she worked to stay in community with people. Robin went back to make amends with people, even as her faculties were diminishing. I was able to see her as an adult, a woman who took charge of her choices, began to save money, and made an effort to in a desperate bid to care for other persons who were less capable than she in her Assisted Living community. I saw her grow in faith, and renew her graciousness, and celebrate the spirit of service with others.
In parting, I say, "May the Lord bless her and keep her. May she be without pain, may she be joyful. May she able to remember all her words and all her graces, and have the energy to make new friends. May she grow toward grace in eternal life. Keep Calm and Carry on, dear Mother. I am so proud of you, you died so bravely, so ethically. I wish you the best in your new adventure."
AKW 11/2/17
Her family welcomed a little brother for Robin in 1945: Robert John Adair. In Bob, she found someone who would follow along and take her instructions. Or so she thoughtBob had a gift for interpersonal relations and was completely affable.
Robin was brilliant, sharp-witted, and determined to rise to the top. Her mother and grandmother worked hard to polish her and succeeded in getting her to adopt a code of ladylike behaviorultimately landing her at Scripps College in Claremont CA, a womens college she held dear to her dying day.
Although Robin was a dedicated scholar, she struggled with a learning disability all of her life. Naturally, this was a stumbling block for her, because she came from a family of readers, and she had so much ambition. A friend tells a story about a presentation she made in seventh grade: Robin presented a new alphabet she invented for phonetic spellingand tried to convince everyone to adopt her system. Shortly after that, she resigned to the Roman alphabet, and jumped to reading novels by the end of the summer. Books and learning were her haven, just as they had been for her mother. Robin tried her hand at writing short stories, poems, and family histories, but never published anything.
It was in Claremont that Robin met her future husband on the first day of college. According to family lore, she was out on a plaza with some friends discussing the creation of a roaring 20s party when James Eddy Warjone and his friends chatted the girls up. She mentioned that she had heard that one of the freshmen at Claremont Mens College had a Model T, and would it not be great to have that at the party! Jim was able to step up, and drove the T up onto the grounds for the party. Thus, a long courtship began.
Robin and Jim were married the year after graduation, in 1966, and moved from Los Angeles to Seattle to start a new life together. Sadly, their well-planned wedding was cancelled due to the sudden death of Jims father. The marriage nevertheless took place, but under altered circumstances that required their sharing the church with Fred Astaires daughter, whose marriage was also taking place there, necessitating their having to split the flowers!
Robin and Jim welcomed a daughter, Anne, in 1968, a daughter, Virginia, in 1970, and a son, Hans, in 1974. They lived in Broadmoor, down the street from Jims mother, Mary Ann Nickum. Mary Ann would get calls from neighbors when her grandchildren were spotted on the golf course or around the neighborhood, being kids in a neighborhood full of senior citizens. Mary Ann knew most of town, so this was a constant source of amusement or strife, depending upon which side of the cocktail hour the phone call came.
Robin inherited a tremendous work ethic, an unbounded sense of community, and a desire to be useful from her parents. And having married into "Society," Robin was intent upon employing these characteristics to live up to the family name as well as to recover perceived lost family fortunes. Robin worked creatively and hard at everything, and was a natural leadervery persuasive, articulate, and logical.
Robin was an able seamstress, noted for designing and sewing clothes, and costumes. As a teenager, she was expected to take the allowance her family gave her and generate her own clothes. This sewing skill was put to good use, making costumes for community pageants: notably for the Epiphany Parish of Seattles Christmas Pageant, which are still in use today. She made many trophy-winning troupe costumes for Seattle Yacht Clubs Opening Day (of the Boating Season) Parades. She also made inventive, customized costumes for theme parties and Halloween. Most notable of these inventions was a "Cookie Monster" costume designed for her (then second grade) daughter, Anne, which was then modified for her husband, and later modified by her son, Hans for wear in college.
Robins love for pageantry made her a great party planner, and she employed herself as a fundraiser and coordinator for many non-profits, Planned Parenthood, among them. She took the Junior League of Seattle Volunteer training as a young society wife, and used that skill to build fundraising events at many newly minted independent schools in the 1970s and 80s in Seattle. She and her husband contributed efforts to Epiphany School, University Prep, Seattle Country Day, and Overlake School, where they ensured dyslexia tutoring for their kids and countless others.
Robin had a strong sense of community. She was an intrinsic networker, with practical experience to offer. She once loaned her cat to nurse in the window of the Madison Park Hardware store. She had a gift for learning what people needed and getting it for them. For this reason, Robin was a great mentor to many aspiring young people. For instance, it brought Robin great joy to find young girls to attend her Womens College. She recruited many of her daughters peers to go to Claremont. She also enjoyed mentoring young entrepreneurs, attorneys, and parents of young children. Many people remember her sanguine advice and her wish to help them. As she aged, her skill with money did not increase, and so best to just take the advice and not the money. She wanted to be a great figure in the community, but the small-town fabric she assumed was not here in the city.
Robin had an interest in Political Science and Political Philosophy she carried with her all her life. This started when she read a book called "Slan," about a character who overcame all odds to thrive. While in College, she studied Political Philosophy with Martin Diamond and was a house officer for her dormitory. Later, Robin attempted to win public office on a populist platform, earning 15,000 votes around the state. Sadly, she was running for national office. That number of votes would have gotten her into the State Senate!
In the 1980s, Robins husbands attentions went increasingly to his work life in a family company. She tried to salvage the marriage with therapies, and a trip to Residence Twelve, but was not able to reconcile with her husbandtheir marriage dissolved officially in 1990. To compound the loss of that time, Robins parents were dying in Southern California. Robin visited them often, while trying to get her own life started. Her own children had difficulty launching into adulthood with both parents debilitated by their own psychic processes.
Robin tried to return to success. She tried a return to sales, since she had some success a clerk at Bullocks Beverly Hills, as a young woman. Utilizing knowledge about fine things, Robin stocked an antiques booth in Edmonds. This business required more attention than she had to give, and so it failed. Much of her inventory was moved into her house, where she had trouble getting rid of it. Her children helped her on many occasions to sort and discard items which were overwhelming her, but her anxiety trumped her efforts to get clear.
Robin did travel the world during these years, which fulfilled a life-long wish of hers. She went to China, most of the Middle East and Mediterranean, and Europe with tours. She and her family were most fond of Greece, and she liked to tell people that she had visited there four times during her lifetime. Her home reflected worldly tastes, and her hospitality, even in grief, was warm and engaging.
Robin wanted to make a mark on the world, in a grand way. But she will be most remembered for the small ways in which she contributed. She was a terrific record keeper, with photographs, scrapbooks, and transcripts of family stories. She kept her kinship ties strong and built community wherever she went.
In the last decade of her life, Robin returned to Epiphany Parish of Seattle, her original community in Seattle. She appreciated being back to the Parish where she had first come as a young, bright thing to Seattle. She loved being remembered and appreciated, especially as her own memory was failing. Robin was a greeter at every Sunday service for years. She would dress to the nines and help in any way she could. They let her sit in on many Minions, and share her experience, and I know she felt valued and respected there.
The one thing Robin wanted me, as her daughter, and you, as a person who cares enough to read this long obituary, to know, as she was dying, was that she was sober. She worked very hard to be sober in the last three years of her life. She took responsibility for herself, and she worked to stay in community with people. Robin went back to make amends with people, even as her faculties were diminishing. I was able to see her as an adult, a woman who took charge of her choices, began to save money, and made an effort to in a desperate bid to care for other persons who were less capable than she in her Assisted Living community. I saw her grow in faith, and renew her graciousness, and celebrate the spirit of service with others.
In parting, I say, "May the Lord bless her and keep her. May she be without pain, may she be joyful. May she able to remember all her words and all her graces, and have the energy to make new friends. May she grow toward grace in eternal life. Keep Calm and Carry on, dear Mother. I am so proud of you, you died so bravely, so ethically. I wish you the best in your new adventure."
AKW 11/2/17
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