Anthony Robson

Bertie was born Anthony Emerson Robson on March 29th, 1932 in London, England. He died on July 28th, 2025, at 95. He was preceded in death by his wife, Patricia. He is survived by his wife Lyn and his three children: Mark, Caitlin and Ian, and 10 grandchildren. Bertie was an only child, the son of Arnold Emerson Robson and Mary Primrose Gillingham.

He was raised in London by his mother until about age eight, early WWII. With London being bombed nightly children were being sent out of the big cities to the country. By train he and his Mother were moved to Bude, a coastal town in western Cornwall. They were given an apartment in the lovely home of Mr. and Mrs. Ken Peter where Anthony's mother became their housekeeper.

The Peters had no children of their own. Early on Mr. Peter took an avid interest in and saw the promise in a young man with no formal education and a poor English boy's accent. Mr. Peter encouraged his education and taught him how to speak a more posh English. He helped him to obtain a scholarship to his first school, St. Petroc's. Anthony started two years academically behind his classmates, but by the third year he was first in his class - and maintained that distinction for the rest of his formal education. He was given scholarships to Exeter School and Oxford.

While in school he formed many strong friendships, some lasting 50 - 70 years! This is where and when Anthony became "Bertie". While playing Rugby his teammates thought his name "Anthony" was a tad too formal for their fun-loving friend. So "Bertie" he was known from then on.

Being given the choice between Cambridge and Oxford, Bertie chose Oxford because of their strong Sciences, particularly Physics. Engineering was his second choice but everything he learned in this field he taught himself. He went on to build or renovate his homes and learned to take apart and repair old vintage cars. In his future a 1923 AC, a 1922 Bentley, then a 1948 Allard.

After Bertie received a DPhil at Oxford he was hired by Harwell Sciences under the auspices of the British Atomic Energy Research Authority in 1956. And thus began his long career in many facets of trying to make clean, efficient, affordable and safe energy derived from atoms. When Harwell lost some of their funding, Bertie was offered a position to continue his work at the University of Texas, Austin.

Before leaving England in 1966 he met and married his first wife, Liz, and they started their family. First there was Mark, and then Caitlin; Ian was born after moving to Austin.

Liz and Bertie traveled to America on the Queen Elizabeth. And he became an American citizen. In 1974, Bertie and Liz parted ways and he took a position at the Naval Research Lab in D.C. There he met his second wife Patricia, an American with whom he was happily married for over 40 years; she passed in 2017. During their travels both Bertie and Pat fell in love with Scotland, so much so that they eventually bought an apartment in Perth. He loved everything about Scotland and he and Pat returned 2 to 3 times a year.

After retiring in his sixties from the Naval Research Lab, he became a Consulting Physicist in the private sector. By that time, Bertie had traveled to many foreign ports, while attending seminars and giving lectures or keynote speeches. He and Patricia had left busy northern Virginia for peaceful life in bucolic Charlottesville.

Bertie remained in his loved field for his entire career and at age 92 he was asked to be an advisor for a new Google research project. He was still consulting up until Spring of 2025 at age 95 when the project ceased.

His later years were spent living in his beloved University Village enjoying many new found warm friendships. Bertie found love once more when he met Lyn, a retired physician. They spent his last years traveling, talking about everything and nothing, enjoying a glass of Scottish whisky: truly best friends who found love and married in 2022.
Bertie was very curious about many things in life, be it religion, politics, war or peace and he studied many languages. He was a beautiful writer and has left his children a journal of his life. And, of course, there was his love of poetry. He read, collected, and wrote it, and he loved to share poems with anyone who would listen.

Bertie Robson was a vibrant and young 95. His brain remained sharp but sadly his body did not. He will be missed by so many.