By Alex Bass
Alex.bass@triangletribune.com
RALEIGH – For Prezell Russell Robinson, every opportunity for faith-filled, familial fellowship is a good time.
Food catalyzes conversations for the St. Augustine’s University president emeritus, who celebrated his 105th birthday on Aug. 25. Daughter JesSanne Robinson Johnson and her family brought the patriarch’s culinary favorites – shrimp, trout and German chocolate cake – for dinner at the same home where Robinson and his late wife, Lulu, and JesSanne moved in the 1970s after SAU eliminated its presidential residence to make space for a library.
“His lineage is going to be there forever, hopefully,” Johnson said. “We will be able to appreciate all of the wonderful things he left on campus.” The library was dedicated in 1984 in honor of alumnus Robinson – the college’s president from 1967-95. Robinson, a World War II (Army) veteran, and a sociologist and educator per his Ivy League Ph.D. degree from Cornell University, extends his lifelong learning now through more listening from the comfort of his living room chair with headphones connecting him with news and music resources. His teaching is timeless, through the treasure trove of handwritten notes – to himself and the institution’s sons and daughters.
“I know how I felt receiving a handwritten note as a student from the college president,” said Everett Ward, who has Robinson’s message from when he was elected freshman class president in 1977. Ward became the first African American executive director of the North Carolina Democratic Party before returning to SAU as its president from 2014-19. He extended traditions of note writing, eating in the cafeteria with students, and including students in scholarly discussions.
“That was a Prezell Robinson model of leadership,” Ward said. “Your personal success is never enough. If your community is not successful, then you as a leader have failed.”
Robinson’s autobiography, “A Man’s Reach Should Exceed His Grasp,” reinforces this precept through the exaltation of his wife. “I am so proud of Lulu, and her accomplishments, the love and care she gave to our family, and the support and encouragement she gave to me in the pursuit of my dreams. All that I have accomplished, we did together. To this, I will be forever grateful,” Robinson wrote.
St. Aug’s alumnus and legendary track coach George Williams echoed Ward in affirming Lulu Robinson’s prowess as an educator at the college. “I followed the same playbook,” Williams said of Robinson, who participated in track & field as an undergraduate. “I was just in a different arena. God didn’t make winners and losers. He made choosers. I watched the choices that he made.”
Robinson’s far-reaching humanitarian endeavors took him all over the world, including to the United Nations. In a faculty/staff meeting, Robinson told the story of how he introduced himself at the UN, and acknowledged – in his authentic, homegrown South Carolina drawl – his St. Augustine’s affiliation and that many of them might not be familiar with the institution.
Williams recounted what Robinson said he was asked to do. “‘When you get back, tell coach Williams we said ‘Hi,’” said Williams, who almost fainted at that moment.
“He represented us with the utmost dignity and pride,” Williams continued. “He is the kind of guy, intentionally a gentleman, who was focused on getting the job done. He was always himself. He is still part of my family.”
For Johnson, a 1988 St. Aug’s graduate, the Aug. 25 family meal was timeless. Her interwoven “home and school” family grew whenever Robinson brought his wife and daughter to dine with students in the campus’ cafeteria after a Sunday service in St. Augustine’s Chapel.
“The whole family loved that, because he was a people person,” Johnson said. “(He said) Do not forget the people who helped you get here.”
