Dumas Maurice Robinson

Robinson, Dumas Maurice
May 23, 1930 - June 6, 2010
Dumas Maurice (Diggy) Robinson, 80, of Lake Forest, California, died on Sunday, June 6th, 2010.
Diggy was born in Akron, Ohio, to Dumas and Marcella Macbeth Robinson on May 23, 1930. The oldest of five children, he was always a natural leader. A gifted athlete, he was Captain of his high school swim team, the beginning of a lifelong love of the water.
Diggy briefly attended The Ohio State University before joining the Army during the Korean War. While in the service, he graduated from Medical Field Service School in Houston, Texas, in January 1952. After discharge, he lived for a short time in Washington, DC, before earning a scholarship to the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City (NAUM) in 1953 and 1954, where he became fluent in Spanish, another lifelong passion.
Relocating to Los Angeles in 1954, he worked for the County of Los Angeles as a Spanish interpreter for the Superior Court Criminal Division where he met his future wife, Lillie Quan.
Diggy worked for the Postal Service as a mail carrier during the late 1950s. In the early 1960s, he became a Consultant with the State of California for the Fair Employment Practices Commission, an agency dedicated to combating discrimination in employment and housing. A passionate champion of the disenfranchised, this work brought Diggy great personal and professional satisfaction. In 1964, he was promoted to Supervising Consultant and headed up the San Diego satellite office.
He eventually moved back to Los Angeles, where he continued consulting until his retirement, at age 52, in 1983. As a young man, he made a vow to retire early to pursue his many hobbies and interests. He was a sailor (in his handmade sabot), amateur radio operator (call letters WA6SBP), clock maker, private pilot, and self-taught carpenter and furniture maker. He also water skied, raised bees (personally harvesting the honey) and was a devotee of classical music. In 1984, he served as a volunteer Spanish language interpreter at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, an experience that he fondly cherished.
In retirement, he found that he missed the excitement of investigation and worked part-time as a Private Investigator for various law firms for many years in the 1980s and 1990s. Well into his 70s, he was an "early adopter", eagerly embracing the newest technologies and gadgets. It was well-known among family and friends that Diggy could build or fix just about anything.
Diggy is preceded in death by his beloved sister, Shirla McClain, and his devoted friend and early mentor, Thomas G. Neusom. He is survived by his wife Lillie, son Craig, sisters Sheila Berry, Faith Robinson, brother Duane Robinson and numerous cousins, nephews, and nieces, grand nephews and nieces. The family would like to acknowledge his cousins Ralph and Lonnie Mundy, niece Kelli Shimabukuro, loyal friends Ken and Jan Taylor, Lou and Amy Martinez, Kirk and Michelle Radmore, and niece Cathy Hlebechuk and husband Dave. The family would also like to express gratitude to Wendy Cortez of The City of Hope for her loving support and to everyone at Memorial Care Hospice of Saddleback Valley, for their extraordinary care at the end of his life.