The Frank Robinson Story

                               Interview by Russ Rehm

                I just got off the phone with Frank Robinson.  What a sweet man.  I had no idea!  I knew Frank had gone to West Point, but all the rest just blew me away.  Maybe you guys are going to argue with me when I call him a genius.  Maybe you will say, "I knew Frank in high school; sure, he was smart, but he was no genius!"  A medical doctor for 40 years, and a lot more; so, let's just say, he’s a pretty smart guy. 

                So, here, roughly told, is the Frank Robinson story.  Let's start with his father, the electrical engineer, who General Electric had sent to Pasco to bring the dams on line.  This is a big deal.  So, this huge dam is built across the Columbia or Snake Rivers.  The water is rushing through, the turbines are spinning, the electricity is being produced, and finally someone has to say, "I've inspected everything, and I am 100% confident that if we throw that switch, Mrs. Robinson's new air conditioner is going to run."  Which it does, because Mr. Robinson is one smart guy, with an even smarter son.

Next actor on stage is Candy Gregson's famous father, the much-feared Vice Principle of

Pasco High School -- Mr. Gregson!  Whose son had attended West Point from 1960 to 1964; and who decided that a bunch of us Pasco Bulldogs would also.  What was that like?  Let me describe it like this:  At the Naval Hospital in Bremerton, I was ordered to bend over, had a greasy finger stuck up my ass and ordered to cough!  It was an experience you would only want to go through once.  Later, that Fall, I would be attending the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point; and Frank would be attending the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he says, he received an excellent education, but "it was a hell of a place to be at."

Frank got his ass into the Army, but his heart never was.  The Vietnam War was raging, and LBJ wasn't going to let those little yellow bastards kick our ass!  He wanted to "bring the boys home", and get on with building JFK's Great Society, but his Texas pride wouldn't let him back down, despite the thousands of protestors fighting our own National Guard on college campuses, like Kent. 

Thus, Lieutenant Robinson found himself going from Fire Support Base to Fire Support Base, like his father had gone from dam to dam, figuratively "turning the electricity on."  Graduating from West Point in the top 5% of his Class, Frank was allowed to choose which branch of the Army he would specialize in, and he wisely chose the Army Corp of Engineers, wherein you could fight with your brains, instead of your balls.  At that point in the Game -- August of '69 to August of 70 was his year in Nam -- it was just a matter of staying alive.

Ask Frank about it, the next time you see him.  I was writing down as fast as he was talking, and so I didn't get all the details, but here are some of the words I scribbled down:  Ranger School, Airborne School, 82nd Airborne Division, 1st Calvary Division [Airmobile],Airborne, helicopters, Fire Support Bases, Sand-bag buildings that we would build and the Cong would blow up three weeks later, and then we would come back and rebuild.

Come on guys, let's just say it together: “Frank, thank you for your service."  We're proud of you!

Frank also mentioned some ways being in the Army served him well, like paying for his next degree at the Harvard Business School.  Have any of you heard of that school?  THE number one school in the world!  It's incredible.  But then guess what Frank said.  What I learned there was that business was not for me.  Can you believe that?

That says something deeply profound to me.  Frank wasn't looking for a job; he was looking for a calling, and he found it in medicine.  But like all good movies, he first had to fall in love and have his heart broken, so in 1972, he got married for six years. 

When he got out of the Army in 1975, the very next day he was in medical school, while his wife had just finished getting her Law Degree.  Then one day in 1978 she said to him, "You'll be happier with someone else."  Or maybe, 'You'll find someone else, and be happier."  Frank says, "I was devastated."  But here's the thing: “She was right!"  Three years later, he met Jennifer, and they lived happy ever after!  I'll bet you can't wait to hear that story.

Well, it's a really cool story.  The story begins way back in Pasco High School in Mr.

Gregson's Honors Chemistry Class.  "But Frank," I asked, "Why weren't you in the Honors

English Class, with the rest of us?"  Now get this, because he says, English was my worst subject!  You know, I've heard that before.  Geniuses have that problem.  They are teaching Quantum Mechanics and then can't remember where they parked their car.  So, please, don't think Frank is perfect; he's not.  But he is exceptional, and Mr. Gregson could see it.

Honors Chemistry, taught by Colonel Gregson, was just like being at West Point, Frank shared.  We were graded every day, and every day we had to recite out loud.  "You couldn't ghost thru it."  And Frank LOVED chemistry.  So guess what kind of doctor he became?  I'll bet you $20 dollars, you can't spell it. He became an Anesthesiologist.    Yup, he had his own private practice for 30 years, retired twice and then worked eight years as a staff anesthesiologist at the Veterans hospital in Jackson, Mississippi.  He loved to study how chemicals interact with the human body.  Before the surgeon could start cutting, Frank had to anesthetize the patient.  When you had your tonsils out, did they use ether?  Over the decades, Frank has seen incredible changes.  I guess the idea is to put them to sleep, but not permanently.   Round trips are the goal.

So, there was this nurse named Jennifer.  They met in 1981, Frank’s third and final year of anesthesia residency training.  Prophetic words: "Frank, you'll find somebody else, and you'll be happier."  For the past 43 years they have been.  Four kids -- In 1983 one at the hospital and two at the courthouse. In 1986 they added a fourth child. Six grandchildren and two great grandchildren.  Chemistry is amazing, heh, Frank?

Chemists are the great unsung heroes of American society.  Everything we touch, from computer screens to packaging, from house paint to toilet paper, is chemistry.  About love, we say, they just have the "right chemistry."

So here is nurse Jennifer, who had a diploma in nursing (Registered Nurse) but hadn’t finished her undergraduate degree. Nowadays nursing degree completion programs are widely available.   Not so in the early 1980’s.  Working full time, being a mother, it took her 12 years to get her Bachelor degree;  then her Masters so she could teach nursing; then her PhD in nursing, which took 6 years, and then she went on to complete a postdoctoral research fellowship at the University of Michigan She then became a college professor and the Associate Dean for Research at the only academic health science center in Mississippi.  Way to go, Jennifer!  

Just north of New Orleans is a large lake, called Lake Pontchartrain.  Just north of this Lake, along Interstate 12, is a town called Covington, Louisiana.  "We like warm weather," Frank said.  That's where they lived from 1982 to 2006, the year after Hurricane Katrina.  After living in Michigan from 2006 to 2008, they returned to the South, settling in Jackson, Mississippi. I got to know Frank and Jennifer from Face Book.  There they were hiking the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route in northern Spain.  I thought, don't these people ever stay home?  Where are you going next, I asked Frank.  Sail around Japan and then cross the Pacific to Alaska in April.  But we're scaling back, he said.  Ya, right.  Sounds like it.

So, is Frank a genius?  Maybe.  He is a war hero, a great father, a loving husband, a world traveler, a hugely successful doctor, and a kind and giving man, who has lived a wonderful, exceptional life!  And, he is a graduate of Pasco High School, Class of 1964!  Put all those things together, and I would say that in all the ways that really count, Frank is a genius.  Now don't argue with me, Frank.