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Alice Robinson

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4 entries

"Sorry to learn of your mother's passing. My mother enjoyed..."
- Joan Hilfiker
"WE ALL LOOSE BY HER PASSING. SHE WILL LONG BE REMEMBERED."
"Alice was as described and so much more. It was she who..."
- Donna Cullen
"I am so deeply sadden to hear of Alice's passing , she was..."
- Laurel Hoberg

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PHELPS-Alice Alden Robinson, resident of Phelps since 1947, daughter of the late Paul and Mary Alden, died (April 26, 2012), 90, after a stroke, her hands held by two loving granddaughters.
A memorial service will be held this summer at the convenience of the family.
Contributions in Alice's memory can be made to: Ontario Pathways (Alice hiked and bird-watched there): P.O. Box 996, Canandaigua, N.Y. 14424, Pathway Home of the Fingerlakes/United Way of Seneca Cty, P.O. Box 516, Seneca Falls, N.Y. 13148, Cornell Lab of Ornithology (on-line), Skaneateles Festival, 97 E. Genesee St., Skaneateles, N.Y. 13152 or Heritage Christian Services, 349 W. Commercial St., East Rochester, N.Y. 14454.
Alice's five children, nine grandchildren, and countless others whose lives she touched, will remember her as a vibrant, soft-spoken role model. She instilled in all a passion for the natural world: from wildflowers to wasps, birds to beetles, mushrooms to moths, tadpoles to trees. A dedicated homemaker and mother, she was a tireless volunteer (scout leader, longtime active member of Phelps Presbyterian Church) and substitute teacher in local schools. By example, she taught her children to raise their own children with a gentle touch. Her University of Illinois class of 1943 senior thesis, "The Literary Influences on Milton's Principal English Poems," still resides on a shelf at the university library. She was a thoughtful and voracious reader (longtime member of Phelps Tuesday Club), a marvelous conversationalist, perfect listener, avid birdwatcher, bread baker, memorizer and writer of poetry,faithful correspondent, unsentimental realist, peace-lover and peacemaker, compassionate supporter of worthy causes. A word of caution, though: She hated anybody making a fuss over her and would protest this lengthy write-up. Before moving 3 months ago to assisted living, Alice maintained the family home and her large vegetable and flower gardens in Phelps. Her freezer and cupboards were left full of her canned and frozen vegetables. At 88, she performed a perfect dive off a dock at Keuka Lake. Her stunned family had urged her to get in the water, but they didn't expect that! But of course, a few years earlier, she'd demonstrated a headstand during a family reunion. A standout memory is of the time she found cecropia moth eggs on a cherry leaf. Alice brought them inside and protected them until they hatched, then raised the caterpillars to cocoon stage. One afternoon, her kids came home from school to find the doors of the house wide open. The spectacular moths had emerged, graceful, ready to fly. A grandson asked Alice to officiate at his wedding, "because she's the most respectable person we know." Alice's influence lives on in her children and grandchildren who honor her in their work as artists, poet, landscape architect, actor, attorney, entomologist, writers, archaeologist, musicians, family practice physician, loving parents, community volunteers, farm worker, students of wildlife biology and energy policy, and a financial analyst.
The family wishes to express gratitude to the medical and hospice teams at Highland Hospital in Rochester. Also to the staff and residents at Ashton Place, Clifton Springs, where Alice enjoyed three contented, carefree, too-short months before her death.
Survived by children, Claire (Richard) Damaske of Seneca Falls; Robin
(Donald) Pulver of Pittsford, David (Sandy) Robinson of Washington, D.C., Willard Scott Robinson (Maria Katherman) of Douglas Wyoming, Paul Robinson (Marjory Myers) of East Greenwich, R.I.; grandchildren, John (Janet) Damaske, Paul (Sarah) Damaske, David Pulver, Nina Pulver (Seth Koplowitz), Nathaniel Robinson (Ji-Yeon Park), Ethan Robinson, Quinn Robinson, Scott Robinson, Kate Robinson; great-grandchildren, Noah and Grace Damaske; also sister, Patricia Shrewsbury; many wonderful nieces and nephews; and dear friend, Fran Van Kirk. (The people in parentheses above "could imagine no finer mother-in-law or grandmother-in-law.")
Pre-deceased by beloved husband of 55 years, Willard Robinson, former head of the Food Science Departments of Cornell University and the NYS Experiment Station in Geneva. Also by a sister, Mary Alden Van Alstyne.

Published in Finger Lakes Times from May 6 to May 8, 2012

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