October 02, 1918 - September 27, 2011
Agnes Claflin Robinson died in Palo Alto on September 27, 2011. An active PTA leader she was elected twice to the Board of Education for the Palo Alto School District (1963-73); her chairmanship of the School Board is remembered for her leadership proposing adoption of a Statement of Conscience opposing the Vietnam War.
In 1975, she served on the California Post Secondary Education Commission; in 1982 Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr. appointed her to the Board of Governors for the California Community Colleges, where she was Board President in 1986. Thereafter, she served on the Western States Accreditation Commission.
The Mid Peninsula YWCA honored Aggie with its Helen Tao Award, for her mentoring of grass roots civic organizations. Aggie supported Gertrude Wilks' Nairobi Day Schools in East Palo Alto. Aggie led community roundtables for mutual understanding among all races, languages, ethnic heritages and religions.The Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce celebrated her as its “outstanding citizen” in 1989, with its El Palo Alto “Tall Tree Tribute.”
She is survived by her sister, Theodora Heathcote, and five sons and their families, with seven grandchildren and nine great grandchildren: Nicholas and Shelley Robinson; John and Mallow Robinson; Hugh Robinson; James and Mary Robinson; and Lewis Robinson and Nancy Struben Robinson.
Her memorial service will be November 12, 2011, at 11:00 a.m. at the Palo Alto Unitarian Church. In lieu of flowers, gifts in Aggie's memory may be sent to Palo Alto Partners in Education (PiE) (on line or at P.O. Box 1557, Palo Alto, California 94302).