Robin Greiner Jr.

1932 - 2021

Robin L. Greiner, Jr.
August 24, 1932 - November 7, 2021
Fresno, California - Robin L. Greiner Jr. was born in San Jose, California on August 24, 1932 and passed away at the age of 89 years and three months. He was a lifetime resident of Fresno having moved here at the age of six. He attended John Muir Elementary, Hamilton Junior High and graduated from Fresno High School in 1950. While at Fresno High he was active in student government and was an athletic cheerleader for sporting events. It was during these early years that he became interested in ice skating and began taking lessons with Bill and Julie Barrett, ice dance champions who had relocated to Fresno from London, England. He and his partner, Carol Ormaca Butler, went on to win the United States Pairs Championships four times and competed in the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina, Italy and two World Ice Skating championships in Oslo, Norway and Garmisch, Germany. While skating in world competitions, he and Carol had the opportunity to skate exhibitions in Vienna, Berlin, Munich, Paris, and Prague. Following his retirement from competitive skating, Robin was very active in judging young skaters in the Fresno and Pacific District competitions. In 1965 he was inducted into the Fresno County Athletic Hall of Fame and in the Fresno High School Hall of Fame in 2014.
Robin studied at California State University, Berkeley, and was a graduate of Fresno State University. He later went to mortuary school and got his license as a funeral director in the Los Angeles area and returned to Fresno where he served many families dealing with the loss of loved ones while working at Yost and Webb in Fresno and the Fowler Funeral Home in Fowler. He spent the last 20 years of his professional career working for the California Employment Development Department in Fresno and retired in 1994. Following retirement, Robin was active in many service and social justice activities including the Fresno Interfaith Alliance, Planned Parenthood Miramonte, the Fresno Women's Democratic Club, and the Central California Alliance. He was also a devoted member of the Wesley United Methodist Church and the Unitarian Universalist Church of Fresno. Many will remember his winning smile and sense of humor and his willingness to always help his neighbors and friends no matter what the task. His life was truly a devoted life of service to others.
Robin is survived by his brother, Lee Greiner, of Cincinnati, Ohio; his lifetime partner of 55 years, Ellis Vance of Fresno; his oldest daughter, Sandra Kay Gugel and her husband Scott of Tenmile, Oregon; his son, Steven Craig Vance and wife Amy of San Anselmo, California; and his youngest daughter, Laura Lynn Vance of Antioch, California. He is also survived by five granddaughters, three grandsons, two great granddaughters, four great grandsons, one niece, a nephew, two great nephews and his two beloved four-legged companions, Chacho and Panela.
He was preceded in death by his mother, Gladys Geraldine Greiner and his father Robin L. Greiner Sr., his grandparents, and his sister-in-law, Normalee Tostenson Greiner and niece Robin Lee Greiner Schonberg.
The family wishes to especially thank his co-workers at the EDD and his many friends in the Clovis High Band Boosters for their friendship over the years, the loving and supportive friends at Wesley United Methodist and the UU Church of Fresno, and his home health caregivers and those at Somerfield Memory Care Center who showed him such love and compassion during the last years of his life.
Following his cremation, his ashes will be laid to rest at the Tenmile Community Cemetary in Tenmile, Oregon. A celebration of his life will be held at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Fresno on Saturday, January 8, starting at 10:30 am, Rev. Tim Kutzmark, officiating.