98 



TRANSACTIONS OI' THE AMERICAN SOCIETY 



ture city-planningf efforts, typified by tiie 

 term "Prepare ;" and that during each 

 term he endeavored to take the class to 

 some good-sized city, where for two or 

 three days, its members would be brought 

 into close touch with actual examples of 

 the problems they were considering. Re- 

 ferring especially to the quality of Rob- 

 inson's instruction. Prof. Evans writes: 

 "From a wealth of experience and re- 

 search he was able to emphasize and 

 vivify every point touched upon with in- 

 teresting citations and illustrations. His 

 fund of knowledge of detail in his sub- 

 ject seemed inexhaustible, and always 

 his ideas in the classroom were given 

 forth with a lively alertness, at times 

 spiced with fine humor, and in terms of 

 such masterly English expression as his 

 students will never forget." It is to be 

 regretted that his early death prevented 

 the execution of a plan which he had in 

 mind of putting into book form the sub- 

 stance of his regular lectures to his 

 Illinois classes in civic design. 



No full list ever exists of the well-nigh 

 indefinite number of organizations with 

 which such a man as Robinson becomes 

 at one time or another affiliated. He was 

 recording secretary for the American 

 League for Civic Improvements, organ- 

 izer and first secretary of the National 

 Alliance of Civic Organizations, member 

 of the City Improvement Committee of 

 the Architectural League of America, of 

 the Arts and Crafts Club of New York, 

 of the National Municipal League (and 

 member of its Advisory Council), the 

 American Scenic and Historic Preserva- 

 tion Society, the National Housing As- 

 sociation, the National Conference on 

 City Planning, the American City Plan- 

 ning Institute, corresponding member of 

 the Twentieth Century Club, Boston, the 

 only member outside New York City of 

 the New York State Committee on Con- 

 gestion of Population in New York, and 

 associate member of the American So- 



ciety of Landscape Architects. To this 

 National Society of landscape architects, 

 though not a landscape architect himself, 

 he was elected in 1915 in recognition of 

 "the notable service he has rendered in 

 his pioneer work in city planning in this 

 country: as author and civic advisor; and 

 in his leading many individual .\merican 

 cities to higher ideals of rational planning 

 for health, efficiency, and beauty." All 

 over this country he was an honorary 

 member of improvement organizations. 

 Abroad, he was an honorary member of 

 the Society for Checking the Abuses of 

 Public Advertising (S. C. A. P. A.), of 

 the Council for the Town Planning In- 

 stitute of England, and of other Euro- 

 pean civic societies. Finally, he was not 

 without honor, even in his own home 

 city: in Rochester, N. Y., where he had 

 been a lifelong resident, he was a park 

 commissioner, a director of the Children's 

 Playground League, a member of the 

 Rochester Art League, a director of the 

 Memorial Art Gallery, secretary of the 

 Civic Improvement Committee which se- 

 cured the Rochester City Plan, mem- 

 ber of the Executive Committee of the 

 Chamber of Commerce, and Chairman of 

 its City Planning Committee. He was 

 a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Frater- 

 nity, and, in 1905, his Alma Mater had 

 appropriately conferred on him the hon- 

 orary degree of Master of Arts. 



At his death, in wartime, he was an 

 earnestly interested member and worker 

 of the American Society of Landscape 

 Architects' Special Committee to Co- 

 operate with the Comite Neerlando-Belge 

 d'Art Civique, which is the official 

 American representative of that Comite 

 and charged with aiding it in every way 

 from American experience in its collec- 

 tion and arrangement of material for the 

 use of the replanners — whoever they 

 shall be — of the Belgian communities de- 

 stroyed in the war. To this work he had 

 brought his characteristic, rare initiative, 



