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The President's Letter
Claude Robinson: A Life Well Lived
Another Thanksgiving has come and gone. I’ve glutted on football, food, friends, and family and thanked my lucky stars for all of them...even football, now that the Lions are repaying more than 65 years of fan frustration with a healthy dose of hopefulness.
Speaking of hopefulness, someone came to mind recently who doesn’t normally invade my Thanksgiving reveries. In fact, I barely knew him. But, his remarkable legacy of giving back to his community gave him rock star status for many of us.
His name was Claude Robinson, and he passed away in early January of this year at the age of 98, figuring he had done just about all he could to make the world a better place for all of us.
Claude was born in Detroit back when flappers were still cutting rugs on the dance floor. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering from Wayne State University, which eventually led to his becoming president of American Seating’s Transportation Product Group.
Along the way he shared 65 years with his wife Marion, a beloved educator in the Forest Hills School System. He was an aviation officer in the Army Air Corps during World War II and, after his retirement in 1969, fought just as hard on the Cascade Township Planning Commission and Zoning Board of Appeals to enhance the quality of life in the community.
Oh, and did I mention his philanthropy? Thanks to him the Cascade Township Recreation Park now has the Marion and Claude Robinson Children’s Playground, a universally accessible children’s park. When I approached him several years ago to see if he would make a small donation toward the purchase and installation of an aquarium in our library, he offered to pay for it all...and did!
Even after leaving this beautiful but struggling planet in January, we still felt his presence in the form of a generous bequest to the Friends in his final will. Claude was someone who cared about the community in general and the library in particular.
It might seem strange to be saying thanks nearly a year after his passing. But, the older I get, the more I realize that it’s never too late to express gratitude for a life well lived.
Thanks, Claude, from all your Friends at the library!
--Joe David
Claude Robinson