Karin Westphal Robbins

Karin Westphal Robbins, age 84, passed away peacefully on March 21, 2026, in Chattanooga, TN.

Karin was born on April 20, 1941, in Berlin, Germany, to Ulrich and Ilse Westphal. At the age of 8, she immigrated with her family to Elizabethtown, Kentucky. Growing up as a German child in the aftermath of World War II came with challenges, but Karin’s strong will, beauty, and resilience ultimately prevailed and she excelled both socially and academically, graduating as valedictorian of her class. She went on to attend Vanderbilt University, where she studied biochemistry, following in her father’s footsteps. Karin began her career at Emory University in Atlanta, where she jokingly described her work as “injecting rats.”

She married Gene Robbins in 1968 and started a family in Griffin, Georgia. She loved the small town of Griffin, her bridge and tennis friends, and being a full time Mom to her two children, Lisa and Wes. The family moved to Chattanooga in 1978, and Karin found great joy in her home on Elder Mountain, where she was able to enjoy her love of gardening and golden retrievers. Karin eventually went back to work in private banking, working at several prominent institutions in Chattanooga, and received many awards and accolades in that part of her career. She moved to the Fairhills neighborhood of Chattanooga in 2003 and was most happy being in her home and chatting with her amazing neighbors and book club group.

A woman of remarkable strength, Karin was a three-time breast cancer survivor. She faced each challenge with courage and perseverance, living by the German expression she often proclaimed: “etwas immer,” meaning “there’s always something.” Nothing really got her down and she tended to see the positive in things and simply ignore the negative. She loved to read, listen to opera and classical music, and was a patron of the arts, even volunteering as a docent at the Hunter Museum in Chattanooga. She loved to travel, especially in Europe, and was able to return to some of the places she had lived as a child during the war, Tubingen, Heidelburg, and parts of Austria. And she loved the beach, summers at Pawley’s Island, SC with the family and later regularly spending time in Hilton Head, SC.

Above all, Karin loved her family and would always talk about her greatest pride, her two children, Lisa and Wes, to anyone that would listen. Her home was filled with photographs of all of her family, and she saved every card, note, or postcard sent to her from her family and friends.

Karin is survived by her daughter, Lisa Lee, and son-in-law, Chris Lee, and their children, Harrison and Aiden Lee; her son, Wes Robbins, and daughter-in-law, Sarah Robbins, and their children, Henry and George Robbins; her beloved sister, Annette “Antje” Finnegan, and her husband, Doug Finnegan; as well as her nephew, Doug Finnegan, and niece, Amanda Sobanet, and their families.

Honoring her wishes, the family will not have a formal service, but rather plans to hold a celebration of life with immediate family in the coming months. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Karin’s memory to Northside Neighborhood House (www.nnhouse.org), the Hunter Museum of Art (https://www.huntermuseum.org), or the American Cancer Society.