Dr. Robert C. Robinson was a long-time supporter of the PACF. During his lifetime he joined the Foundation’s Legacy Society and established a charitable remainder trust naming the Foundation as one of the charitable beneficiaries. His planned gift started the Dr. Robert C. Robinson Memorial Fund.

“Bob was a very kind man and quite the rapscallion,” said Mr. Robinson’s step-daughter Suzy McKenna. “He loved playing cards with my mother, dancing, tellin

g jokes and of course was an accomplished optometrist.”

Dr. Robinson was born in 1916 in Marietta, OH. He graduated from Marietta High School, then in 1938, from the Illinois College of Optometry. In World War II, he was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the United States Navy. He served in the Pacific Theatre aboard the hospital ship U.S.S. Sanctuary. Upon Dr. Robinson’s return to Parkersburg, he practiced optometry until his retirement in the 1990’s.

Thirteen years after its creation, the Dr. Robert C. Robinson Memorial Fund has awarded nearly $70,000 in funding to organizations in the Mid-Ohio Valley serving women and children in crisis and families affected by domestic violence. This includes a grant to the Family Crisis Intervention Center of Region V, Inc. to assist the agency in becoming a recognized Rape Crisis Center; to the Children's Listening Place to provide staff training and software to assist children who have been abused and neglected; and to support other area agencies.

Dr. Robinson’s initial gift will continue to grow and continue to make a positive impact in our region and to help address a troubling need supporting women and children today and for forever.