Robie, John R.

Description

John R. Robie was born in O’Hara Township, Allegheny County, PA on May 10, 1922, one of six children of George R. and Blanche (Hilliard) Robie. John graduated from Aspinwall High School, PA. In Rye his family lived at 43 Rosemere Street and were members of the Presbyterian Church.

John enlisted July 1, 1943 and served as an officer in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II. (View Muster Rolls) He served in the Pacific with 2nd Engineer Battalion of the 2nd Marine Division. He was a surveyor, assigned to a mapping division that took him to Saipan, Tinian, Okinawa and Nagasaki.

The 2nd Engineer Battalion was relocated on 13 May 1942 to Camp Elliot, San Diego. From here, engineers from Company A embarked for Guadalcanal, and participated in the landing on that island. On 8 September 1942 2nd Engineer Battalion was redesignated as “1st Battalion, 18th Marines”.

During World War II, the engineers of 18th Marines participated in Campaigns on Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Saipan, Tinian, and Okinawa. 18th Marines was redesignated 16 August 1944 as the 2nd Engineer Battalion. On 23 September 1945, 2nd Engineer Battalion was redeployed to Nagasaki, Japan to begin its duty with the Occupational Force.

John spent one year seven months and 20 days overseas. View Discharge Record

After the war, John received his Bachelor’s degree in Architecture from the University of Oklahoma in 1949 where he was a member of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity. He married Elinor (Yepsen) Robie on September 8, 1951.

John spent his career in architecture, spanning a variety of projects that included the Robert Goddard Library at Clark University, Worcester, MA; the Windows on the World, a complex of venues at the top floors of the World Trade Center’s North Tower in New York City; and the Haworth Water Treatment Plant in Haworth, New Jersey.

He worked for a number of firms and architects including Sherwood, Mills & Smith; Warren Platner Associates Architects; John M. Johansen; Schofield Colgan (now Colgan Perry Lawler Aurell Architects); and Eliot Noyes and Associates.

John enjoyed small boat sailing and windsurfing, rock gardening, playing the piano and listening to music, skiing, astronomy, hiking, chess, bird watching trips, tree identification, photography, vacationing at his wife Elinor’s family camp in the Adirondacks and spending time with his family.

He was a member emeritus of the American Institute of Architecture (AIA); the National Audubon Society and the New Hampshire Audubon Society (Concord); the North American Rock Garden Society; the Bradford (NH) Conservation Committee; the Hampstead Congregational Church and the NH Kearsarge Unitarian Universalists Fellowship.

He also taught chess to high school and middle school children in the Kearsarge, NH school district. He and Elinor loved to travel to identify different species of birds and especially enjoyed the U.S. National Parks.

He was a resident of Hampstead, NH for 6 years, formerly living in Bradford, NH for 18 years. Prior to that, he resided in Wilton, CT for 34 years.

John Randolph Robie, 88, of Hampstead, NH died peacefully on Saturday, January 29, 2011 at the Merrimack Valley Hospice House surrounded by his wife Elinor and loving family.

At the time of his death, He was survived by his wife of 59 years, Elinor (Yepsen) Robie, of Hampstead; two sons, David R. and his wife Penny Anderson of Falls Church, VA, and Bradford H. and his wife Carol of Sandown, NH; a sister, Peggy Claire of Palmyra, NY; five grandchildren, Travis Robie, engaged to Tasha Clemmer; Lila Boland and her husband Michael; Katherine H. Robie, Jennifer C. Robie and Dana E. Robie; two great grandchildren, Hazel and Corbin Boland; and 31 nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by sisters Marcia Marlier and Mary Jenkins, as well as brothersFred Robie and George Robie.

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