{"id":7467,"date":"2019-09-12T16:31:58","date_gmt":"2019-09-12T20:31:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sis.utk.edu\/?p=7467"},"modified":"2019-09-12T16:31:58","modified_gmt":"2019-09-12T20:31:58","slug":"honoring-remembering-william-dr-bill-robinson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cci.utk.edu\/sis\/2019\/09\/12\/honoring-remembering-william-dr-bill-robinson\/","title":{"rendered":"Honoring a Legacy: Remembering William ‘Dr. Bill’ Robinson"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Update: William “Dr. Bill” Robinson died Jan. 9, 2021. He will be remembered by the hundreds of students he taught over his three decades at SIS, and the School will continue to honor his memory with the “Dr. Bill” Robinson Scholarship Endowment. The story below was written in September 2019 in honor of his 80th birthday.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former SIS Professor Bill Robinson was many things to many students: exacting, funny, personable, tough, whimsical. All these qualities and more are what make up a big personality that has stuck in the memories of more than three decades of students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This September, when he turns 80, we are taking the opportunity to recall the many wonderful experiences past students and faculty have had with the man they call Dr. Bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe was just absolutely devoted to teaching. That\u2019s where his love was, that\u2019s what he wanted to do. He spent hours and hours preparing for classes, he just loved it,\u201d said SIS Professor Carol Tenopir, who worked with Robinson for several years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robinson not only made learning an enjoyable experience for his students, he also made it a worthwhile one, said Susan Jennings (\u201907), a former student and current dean of library services at Chattanooga State Community College. She took five classes from Robinson \u2013 which comprised more than half of the hours she needed for her master\u2019s in information sciences. She jokingly said she might hold the record for taking the most classes from him, but noted she did it intentionally after taking one class and \u201cgetting hooked.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe was very exacting, but he was the type of instructor that you wanted to please,\u201d she said. \u201cHe gave me a good foundation and a lot of good advice during school and after. He was a reference for me for a very long time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jennings said Robinson had a few quirks and jokes that past students likely will recall \u2013 such as referring to himself in the third person, or calling himself Dr. Blabbo. Or how he\u2019d say \u201cblump\u201d when he couldn\u2019t think of another word to use in an example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was sort of a fill-in word. \u2018Let\u2019s say you work at blump. \u2019And we all knew what he meant,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robinson would often pepper his lessons with relevant stories about his wife, Shelly, and their three children Megan, Daniel and Rob. Or he\u2019d even slip in an occasional photo of his cat into a slideshow or a picture of the garden he so lovingly tended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students weren\u2019t the only people who felt the impact of Robinson\u2019s love of the school, profession and teaching \u2013 faculty also benefitted from his enthusiasm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe was not only an inspiration to students, but also to the faculty. He embraced every change in technology, from teaching face-to-face, to flying to go teach, teaching by broadcast, and then teaching through multiple generations of distance education software. And he kept up with it and helped others do it,\u201d Tenopir said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SIS Professor Dania Bilal said that Robinson was her personal mentor when she arrived at the school in the mid-90s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe was very supportive, critical, constructive, and I learned a lot from him. He\u2019s just a wonderful person,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robinson\u2019s reputation as a tough professor made some students wary, such as Martha Earl (\u201985), who said she dodged his demanding collection development course when he was on sabbatical one summer. But she later took his research methods class and absorbed knowledge from him that has impacted her entire career. Earl is currently the director of the Preston Medical Library at the UT Medical Center in Knoxville.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat class was so good, and yes it was tough, but it has to be tough. If you\u2019re going to do research in our field, you have to learn how to do it right,\u201d Earl said. \u201cI love research anyway, but I used that course immediately. I\u2019ve published numerous articles and I teach research to physicians and nurses and grad students, and I wouldn\u2019t have been able to do any of that if I hadn\u2019t had such a good research methods class.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether the takeaway was that he is funny, a tough teacher, or a proponent of all things related to books and libraries, one thing is certain: he is a memorable man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe was a great mentor even after I got out of school, never missed a birthday on Facebook. He supported all his students, and everybody you will talk to has fond memories of him,\u201d Jennings said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contribute to the Bill Robinson Scholarship Fund<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we take this time to celebrate Bill Robinson\u2019s 80th birthday, we want to do even more than that. The Bill Robinson Scholarship Fund was established many years ago, and is currently $12,000 away from becoming an endowed scholarship. We would like your help to reach our endowment goal so future students can continue to have wonderful learning experiences at SIS. An endowed scholarship yields a scholarship every year, so we want to meet that goal!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps you have $80 to spare, to celebrate Dr. Bill\u2019s 80th birthday and all the great memories you have of him from when he taught you? Or maybe you would just like to be a part of enhancing the field of information sciences by sending more educated professionals into the world. Either way, we have faculty who have pledged to match dollar-for-dollar up to $6,000 between now and Dr. Bill\u2019s birthday, Oct. 25.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Update: William “Dr. Bill” Robinson died Jan. 9, 2021. He will be remembered by the hundreds of students he taught over his three decades at SIS, and the School will continue to honor his memory with the “Dr. Bill” Robinson Scholarship Endowment. 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