Jon Mark Beilue: 50 years, and not a day of work

For WT’s Robinson, it’s been a half-century of ‘living a dream’

It wasn’t a complete surprise as to the purpose when Dr. Bob Robinson was asked to step inside a conference room one recent morning on the third floor of the Agricultural Sciences Complex, a two-year-old, 186,000-square feet building for which he once helped to fundraise.

For one, Cleo, his wife, was with him. For another, a handful of masked colleagues and students were waiting for him. And then there were a few slips of the tongue earlier in the week.

“A couple of people said, ‘Have you seen the video yet?’” Robinson said. “I didn’t know what they were talking about.”

But he soon would. Normally a person has to pass on for laudatory words of praise to be directed his way at a memorial service. But Robinson, very much alive, was there at the end of a conference table to soak it all in.

West Texas A&M University discovered long ago no one is getting rid of Robinson. Not that anyone would particularly want to, though in 50 years, that thought may have crossed someone’s mind at some point.

So, the best thing to do is embrace and celebrate a half-century of involvement in agricultural extension work as well as his work at and on behalf of his alma mater that in many ways has never seemed like work to the Happy native.

“What a blessing I have to get up and go to work each day. I have never dreaded going to work,” Robinson told the assembled group. “I have lived a dream and been blessed to have the best partner (Cleo) anyone could have to live that dream with. I made a pledge to Dr. (Charles) Smallwood when I graduated from WT that I’d work the rest of my life to make WT agriculture better.”

Robinson graduated from then-West Texas State in 1970 with a degree in animal science and began work in the state’s agricultural extension service on July 11, 1970, as an assistant county agent in Potter County. He started when it was the Texas Agricultural Extension Service and continued on well into the renaming to the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service.

Along the way, he was the Randall County agent for 11 year and the district director for agriculture programs first for the South Plains area for 10 years, then for the Panhandle area for five years. That led to regional program director for 66 counties, from just outside of Fort Worth and Abilene to the northwest. One of his last jobs was special assistant to the director of AgriLife.

“Basically, a lobbyist,” he said.

A little more than three weeks ago, Dr. Lance Kieth, head of the department of Agricultural Sciences, began to put together a tribute of a 16-minute video for Robinson featuring more than 25 colleagues and friends whose paths have crossed over the years.

“There are three things I tell people that Bob Robinson truly cares about if you want to understand what makes him tick,” Kieth said. “Those are Randall County, Texas A&M University AgriLife System, and West Texas A&M department of agriculture. Your work and your efforts have shown themselves.”

Indeed, five decades of extension work tells a large portion of Robinson’s life, but certainly not all. He’s been a constant presence at WT, from teaching in the ag department to fundraising to volunteer work like president of the Buffalo Club, and chairman of the Hall of Champions, the school’s athletic hall of honor.

“When I made the decision to come to WT, much because of the encouragement of you, several people told me that I needed to get to know Bob Robinson even better,” Dr. Kevin Pond, the dean of the Paul Engler College of Agriculture and Natural Sciences, said in leading off the video tribute.

“They told me you knew the history, you lived the history, and you knew where the skeletons were buried. They were correct. There’s no reason we can’t continue another 25 years together. Wouldn’t it be nice to have three-quarters of a century of service to the Texas A&M system?”

Robinson, a Randall County commissioner, still holds a part-time professor title, but what takes up much of his time is his work as internship coordinator in the department of agriculture that churns out more than 100 WT student interns annually.

“We’re pretty renowned for that,” Robinson said. “We have our students write reports. We mentor them. All of this has opened my eyes. I used to not understand why more students weren’t at campus events, athletic events. So many are working 30 to 40 hours a week that they can’t. They just don’t have time and their employers love the work our students are doing.”

Virgil Bartlett, general manager of the Tri-State Fair and Rodeo, worked with Robinson for many years.

“That’s 50 years of a lot of hard work,” Bartlett said in the tribute. “There are so many youth out there that never would have got to where they’re at if it had not been for you. A lot of families appreciate what you have done for their kids.

“You are an icon to me. You’re very special to me. I can’t believe I only get 20 seconds to talk. I could talk about you for 20 years.”

Kieth, in putting together the video, went from Buff basketball coach Tom Brown and staff to the way-back machine to find Lanny Tucker, close to 90 years old, and a former ag instructor of Robinson’s.

“I’ve been asked to visit with you a little bit on the video,” Tucker said. “I told a county agent here that you are probably my best pupil ever. I got to be careful or I’m going to get choked up. You were always like my second son behind Jim, or maybe even right ahead of Jim.

“I don’t know what this occasion is, but you earned it. I’ve been a fan of yours for 50 years, and wish I could be for 50 more.”

But lest anyone get a little too sincere and emotional, there was Pat Hickman, chairman of Happy State Bank: “Dr. Bob and the Texas Aggies, 50 years together…It sure seems a lot longer than that.”

At the end of the presentation, the establishment of a Bob and Cleo Robinson Scholarship was announced for the department of agriculture. That’s the sixth scholarship at WT with Robinson’s name attached.

That takes work and many years to reach that. At least 50 of them.

Do you know of a student, faculty member, project, an alumnus or any other story idea for “WT: The Heart and Soul of the Texas Panhandle?” If so, email Jon Mark Beilue at jbeilue@wtamu.edu.