University of North Carolina at Asheville
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Student Assistant in Applied Math, Vice President Engineering
Department |
Title | Samuel Robinson Papers (1891-1973) |
| Creator | Samuel Robinson |
| Identifier | http://toto.lib.unca.edu/findingaids/mss/robinson/robinson.html |
| Subject | Keyword : Robinson, Samuel ; Carolina Mountain Club ; Congregation Beth-Ha-Tephila ; George Masa ; |
| Subject | LCSH : Robinson, Samuel Boy Scouts of America Hiking Masa, George Carolina Mountain Club |
| Description | Personal papers and awards of Asheville optometrist and civic leader Samuel Robinson. A leader in environmental issues, he was active in the Carolina Mountain Club and the Boy Scouts of America. He worked to recognize George Masa's work with the Great Smoky Mountains and to name one of the peaks for Masa, a local photographer, and founding member of the Carolina Mountain Club. The collection includes photographs, newspaper clippings, scrapbooks, awards, correspondence, essays, speeches, and a personal diary. |
| Publisher | Special Collections, D. Hiden Ramsey Library, University of North Carolina at Asheville |
| Contributor | Leah R. Karpen [daughter] |
| Date | 2001-05-28 |
| Type | Collection ; Text |
| Format | 3 document boxes |
| Source | M96.3.1, OS96.3.1, OS96.3.2 |
| Language | English |
| Relation | Related Material : Congregation Beth-ha-Tephila Collection ; Sol Schulman Collection ; Carolina Mountain Club Archive ; Carolina Center for Jewish Studies, UNC Chapel Hill ; American Jewish Historical Society ; Schochet Family Papers ; "A Portion of the People: Three Hundred Years of Southern Jewish Life," Documenting the American South, UNC Chapel Hill, http://www.lib.unc.edu/apop/index.html ; The Family Store Project: A History of Jewish Businesses, 1880-1990, a 12-panel exhibit displayed in a variety of locations in downtown Asheville in the fall of 2006 by History @ Hand. |
| Coverage | 1891-1973 ; Asheville, NC |
| Rights | Copyright retained by the authors of certain items in the collection, or their descendents, as stipulated by United States copyright law. |
| Donor | Donor number : 142, 227 |
| Acquisition | 1996-00-00 ; Second acquisition 2005-05-05 [149 items] ; Third acquisition |
| Citation | Samuel Robinson Collection, D.H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville 28804 |
| Processed by | Special Collections staff 1996 |
| Last update | 2005-12-08 JW |
| Biography | Samuel Robinson was born in Grodno in 1891 and came to the United States
with his family in 1901. He graduated summa cum laude from the University of Texas with a
degree in engineering. He worked with fisheries in Texas, and in the oil fields in
Louisiana. He was a surveyor for the Houston harbor. He later received his degree in
optometry and practiced this profession in Asheville until he was in his early eighties.
He was married to Esther Kroman after moving to Asheville. He was an active member of the Carolina Mountain Club, and was a member of its board of directors. In 1961 he instigated the naming of a 6,000-foot peak in the Great Smoky Mountains for George Masa, a founder of the Carolina Mountain Club and a noted photographer. Dr. Robinson was a noted local Boy Scout leader for more than 25 years, and was a member of the national council of the Boy Scouts of America. He worked for the American Forestry Association and the [Asheville] Metropolitan Planning Board. He was an active member of Temple Beth Ha Tephila in Asheville for fifty eight years, missing services only when out of town. Dr. Robinson performed his own laboratory work in his optometry profession. During the
Depression, and at other times, he never turned away patients, making adjustments for
payment according to the patient's ability to pay. He was known to have lost white
patients due to his insistence on serving blacks first who had arrived first, even during
the Depression years. He worked to integrate the black scouting movement within the Daniel
Boone Council. He strove to raise standards within the optometry profession, and lectured
at professional meetings on difficult optometric problems, on complexities of prisms, and
on his own method of glaucoma therapy. He had seven children, seventeen grandchildren, and
three great-grandchildren at the time of his death on December 22, 1973. |
| Chronology List | 1967, director of Rhododendron Boy Scout District 1958, elected secretary of board, United Social Services 1958, elected National Council member of Boy Scouts of America 1958-1961, council member of Carolina Mountain Club 1959, appointed to Metropolitan Planning Board 1959, ran for Asheville City Council 1961, chairman of Jewish Chautauqua Society 1962, and 1964, named member-at-large of National Boy Scouts of America 1965, director of Engineering Society of Western North Carolina 1965, elected president of Mountain District Society of Optometrists 1967, associate member of Central Asheville Association 1970, elected president of Buncombe County Optometric Society |
| Item List | |
| M96.3.1 | 1 | "Scissor Snips" scrapbook [with interleafing and folder] [1 item] |
| 2 | Items concerning optometry, Judaism, Business Week article, talks delivered by Dr. Robinson, essays by Dr. Robinson, letter (eulogy), travel account (Canada and northeast U.S.) [11 items] | |
| 3 | Letters of condolence on Dr. Robinson's death; family history and genealogy; clipping photocopies from later years of his life [32 items] | |
| 4 | Wallet with I.D. cards and notes inside cover [1 item] | |
| 5 | Cactus 1913, University of Texas Annual. [1 item] | |
| 6 | Ledger (Diary, business records, personal notes) [1 item] | |
| OS96.3.1 | 1 | Large scrapbook, clippings of Dr. Robinson's various activities. [1 item] |
| 2 | Award presented to Dr. Robinson from NC Society of Engineers, 1939 and 1949 [2 items] | |
| 3 | Award presented to Dr. Robinson from N.C. State Optometric Society, 1967 [1 item] | |
| 4 | Award presented to Dr. Robinson from Jewish Committee on Scouting [1 item] | |
| 5 | Award presented to Dr. Robinson from Carolina Mountain Club [1 item] | |
| 6 | Award presented to Dr. Robinson from Union of American Hebrew Congregations [missing] | |
| OS96.3.2 | 1 | Wilderness Hikers scrapbook; clippings of hikers' events 1939-1947 [See also Carolina Mountain Club Archive] [1b item] |
| 1 | Citation for Religious Leadership to Dr. Samuel Robinson, Beth Ha-Tephila. "Member of Beth Ha-Tephila for fifty-one continuous years; dynamic and outspoken champion on behalf of Prophetic Convictions; upholder of Judaism's ideals; co-founder of the Beth Ha-Tephila Brotherhood; ardent and ever ready supporter of the Congregation's undertakings, this plaque given on the Congregation's seventy-fifth anniversary shall serve as a token of appreciation and thankfulness. 1891-1966. " [Framed and lacquered.] [1 item] | |
| P96.3.3 | 1 | Misc. photographs [6 items] |
| rob0001 | "Grandfather, Pack Square" [Interior view of store] | |
| rob0002 | "Daniel Robinson, Galveston, Texas, About 1904" [Interior view of 'Optical Parlor'.] | |
| rob0003 | 1913 Academes [?] | |
| rob0004 | Engineers Club , [Award presented to Dr. Robinson from NC Society of Engineers, 1939 and 1949] | |
| rob0005 | Award Ceremony, [Award presented to Dr. Robinson from Jewish Committee on Scouting ?] | |
| rob0006 | Postcard "Climbing the Needle," Great Cable. Addressed to Dr. Robinson from D. Avery and D. Bishop. |