By Rebecca Goodman
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Mrs. Robinson

Ruth Louise Robinson, a retired special-education teacher and reading specialist for Cincinnati Public Schools, died Friday at her home in Avondale. She was 83.

"The two things that stand out that she taught us were to love your family and that God has blessed us, so that once we make it in this world we have to help those less fortunate than we are," said her son, Eugene B. Robinson Jr. of Avondale.

Mrs. Robinson was born in 1919 in Springfield, Mass., where her father was the first African-American to own an automobile dealership. She grew up ice skating, skiing and tobogganing in Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire during the New England winters.

She received an associate's degree from Bay Path College in Springfield before entering Wilberforce University.

From Wilberforce, Mrs. Robinson received a bachelor's degree in education and business management.

She met Eugene B. Robinson, her future husband, while both were studying at Wilberforce.

They married and moved to Dayton, then Cincinnati, after graduation.

Her husband, who died in 1985, was a counselor at Taft High School and at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center for adults. Mrs. Robinson put in 35 years teaching at Sawyer Elementary, Bloom and Samuel Ach junior high schools, and Hughes High School.

During those years she received a master's degree from Xavier University and was involved in Ohio's Right to Read program.

She was a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.

In addition to her son, survivors include two daughters, Linda Neal of San Francisco and Carol Robinson-O'Hara of Avondale; 11 grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.

There will be no funeral.

Mrs. Robinson's remains were cremated and will be flown to Massachusetts, where her family members will sprinkle them over the Atlantic Ocean.

E-mail rgoodman@enquirer.com