In Memoriam | Home
David Everett Robinson II, enthusiastic
teacher, husband and father, expired of natural causes after 84 years of joyous
living on April 11th, 2011 at this home in Detroit. Born in June of 1926 in
rural Monticello, Mississippi, to David Sr. and Julia (Baggett) Robinson, David
Jr. was the fourth born but first son of five children raised on their family
farm. A voracious reader, he excelled at school, even teaching older students
to read, setting the stage for his lifelong profession.
Dave, as he was called by his friends, married Dr. Jane Alexander Robinson
in 1953 who bore their three children. They divorced in 1968 and he later married
Pearl Fabio Baskerville in 1982 who predeceased him in 2001.
David's formal education took him to the Piney Woods High School in Mississippi
and Western Michigan University on the G.I. Bill for both a Bachelor's of Science
degree in 1951 and a Masters of Education degree in 1955. He came to Western
because in Kalamazoo he could stay with his uncle Benjamin Baggett. After finding
work in the Ford Motor plant in Ypsilanti while completing his Masters Degree,
he immediately won his first position teaching science at Romulus High School.
He served briefly as vice-principal at Robichaud High School in Dearborn Heights
before accepting an administrative position recruiting minorities for admission
to the University of Michigan Dearborn campus in 1971. Four years later he was
promoted to the same position for the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and
he moved from Inkster to Ypsilanti where he retired in 1988. Before retirement
he was promoted further to Assistant Director of Admissions. David was proud
to have helped organize the first Head Start programs in Detroit.
David was an honorable fraternal brother of Kappa Alpha Psi, to which his oldest
son David III pledged in turn. David enjoyed many hobbies besides reading as
much as he could, including hunting, fishing, bowling and watching Detroit Tiger
baseball, U of M football and Pistons basketball. he was a member of the NAACP
Detroit chapter and the Highland Park Caucus Club. Following his mother, David
sang constantly with a beautiful, full voice and after teaching hemself to play
guitar would tell jokes and rally everyone to sing together familiar folk, labor
and protest songs at coffeehouses, churches, meetings and camping.
David was a foundational member of the liberal First Unitarian-Universalist
Church of Detroit ever since arriving in Detroit in 1953. As a skilled orator
he delivered several lay sermons to its membership. David was a lifelong skeptic
and was preparing a sermon called The Origins of Religion. He also
may have completed an autobiography which is still in manuscript form. In 1973
he ran unsuccessfully for the Detroit school board and much later the Ypsilanti
school board in 1991, intent on making a difference at the political level.
Over many years he successfully sold nearly a hundred sets of World Book Encyclopedia
to parents across southeastern Michigan, supplementing his children's college
funds. At times, David volunteered as an adult reading instructor and also mentored
youth through the Big Brothers Big Sisters program. He also developed a method
for teaching science basics to primary students called the R.O.S.E. (Rules of
Science Education).
A generous and consistent father, David Everett Robinson II is survived by
his three loving children: noted Atlanta music educator and arranger David Everett
Robinson III, his wife Alycia; noted psychologist and LGBT activist Dr. Amorie
Alexia Robinson (Kofi Adoma); Detroit Symphony Orchestra musician and composer
Richer Allen Robinson (Rick); granddaughters Raziya Malaika Credell, Ayanna
Dayo Robinson and Brianna Noelle Robinson; great-grandson Marley Credell, brother
James Lynwood Robinson; nieces and nephews Elois Robinson, Beverly Middlebrook
Thomas, Sallie Middlebrook, Angela Middlebrook, Yvonne Stovall, Joyce Davis,
Joseph Leggett Jr., Janice Leggett James, Edith Leggett Dillon, Cynthia Robinson,
Tamara Robinson and Keith Greenwood; cousin Bobbie Sutton and still others.
David served honorably in the United States Army at the end of World War II
from 1945 to 1946 with basic training in Virginia and service at Davis Monthan
field base in Tucson, Arizona attaining the rank of Private First-Class. In
recent years he enjoyed traveling back to Tucson to see what is now an Air Force
base and also to Accra, Ghana on the African motherland in 2006.
Believing strongly in both education and science, David donated his remains
to the University of Michigan School of Medicine. He will then be cremated and
his ashes returned to his family.
Besides this church, David wished any donations be made to the following:
Piney Woods School
5096 Highway 49 South
Piney Woods, MS 39148
Western Michigan University Alumni Association
1903 W. Michigan Ave.
Kalamazoo, MI 49008-5404
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