Dr. Jean Robinson, Had Family Practice
Jean Robinson attended medical school at the University of Michigan during World War II, when students were pressed to finish early because of the country's need to produce physicians quickly. Accelerating her studies, she became a physician at age 26.
It was during that time that Dr. Robinson also met and married her husband of 52 years, Dr. John C. Robinson.
During the last seven years of her life, diagnosed with an incurable disease, Dr. Robinson did little to change the pace of her life, living it as normally as any retiree would.
She coddled her rose garden, frequented the symphony and the opera with her husband, sang in the choir at the University Christian Church and spent time with her three granddaughters.
Dr. Robinson died Thursday (Sept. 10) from a form of leukemia. She was 78.
"It (the disease) did change her approach to a few things, but not dramatically," said her son David Robinson. "She knew she had a fair amount of time. She did pretty much what she wanted."
She neglected to do only one thing, to spend time at Black Lake, near Olympia, where the family often spent summers when David and his older brother and sister were young.
The final stages of the disease were swift, the end unexpected. Several weeks ago, Dr. Robinson sat through a four-hour opera. A week before her death, her oldest child, Mark Robinson, his wife, Sarah Frech, and their two daughters, Alexandra, 6, and Madeline, 4, arrived for an extended visit.
Dr. Robinson was born in Seattle, blocks away from the UW, where she would eventually earn a degree in pharmacy. She grew up in Laurelhurst, where she would raise her own family and live the rest of her life.
She was one of only seven women in her medical-school class, following in her father's footsteps (Dr. Mark W. McKinney), who was a physician in Seattle. Her mother was a nurse.
Dr. Robinson was a traditional family doctor, delivering about 500 babies during her career.
She and her husband operated a joint practice near what is now University Village, retiring in 1991, shortly before being diagnosed with leukemia. She practiced with her husband for more than 40 years, except for a brief period during the Korean War when her husband was assigned to an aircraft carrier. During those years, she practiced with her father.
All her children went on to careers in health care. Dr. Mark Robinson is the director of a medical organization in Vienna that tracks animal epidemics; Laura Robinson is a physical therapist at the UW; and Dr. David Robinson is on staff at Virginia Mason Medical Center, specializing in internal medicine and immunology.
Dr. Robinson also is survived by her son David's wife, Tracy Robinson, and their daughter Abagail, 3.
At Dr. Robinson's request, no public services will be held. But flowers will be presented and a hymn sung in her honor Sept. 27 at her church. Her extended family will have a private gathering this month.
The family asks that all donations in her memory be sent to Children's Hospital Foundation, P.O. Box 5371, Seattle, WA 98105; or to the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Western Washington, 192 Nickerson St., Suite 100, Seattle, WA 98109.
Hugo Kugiya's phone message number is 206-464-2281. His e-mail address is: hkugiya@seattletimes.com