During Women’s History Month, remembering Nancy Robbins, who supported families in need

Nancy Slinker Robbins, who died at age 100 on March 15, got things done.

As her obituary made clear, she had a ton of accomplishments to her credit, the most notable leading the effort to build a Ronald McDonald House here.

The original house, which provides free lodging and support for the families of children who are hospitalized, opened on Westmoreland Drive near Strong Hospital in 1990.

Robbins was so committed to the cause that she led the effort to break ground for the building even though only about half of the estimated $1.5 million cost had been raised.

“We know what the need for this house is,” Robbins told the Democrat and Chronicle in 1988, stressing that the fund-raising campaign was going along smoothly, and that construction might as well begin.

She was right. While the house cost somewhat more than had been anticipated, the dollars came in. The building was finished. The goal was met. Since then, Ronald McDonald House Charities has added a house inside Strong, as well as spaces for families to rest at Golisano Children’s Hospital, Unity Hospital and Rochester General Hospital.

For her achievements, I added Nancy Robbins to our list of Remarkable Rochesterians in 2016. That list contains the names of many other women who left legacies here, women who deserve special recognition this month, Women’s History Month.

There are too many to include here, but a short list of these women of accomplishment includes Mary Sibley Scrantom (1804-1870), one of the founders of the Rochester Female Charitable Society and the Rochester Orphan Asylum, the precursor to the Hillside Family of Agencies.

• Isabella Dorsey (1872-1932) established the Dorsey Home for Dependent Colored Children.

• Mary Cariola (1895-1987), an advocate for children with disabilities, was a driving force for what is now the Mary Cariola Center.

• Bernice “Bunny” Skirboll (1940- ) survived a near-fatal automobile accident and then transformed a struggling agency into Compeer, a now international group that links people with mental illness with supportive volunteer friends.

These women were united by a sense of empathy and admirable perseverance, but they had different reasons for doing what they did.

Robbins got interested in establishing a Ronald McDonald House here after her young daughter, also named Nancy, was successfully treated for cancer.

Robbins told the Democrat and Chronicle how she remembered sleeping in a folding chair while Nancy was undergoing surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, an added stressor at a stressful time.

Motivated by that memory, Robbins decided to help other parents and family members by bringing a Ronald McDonald House to Rochester.

“Once she started something, she never doubted it,” said her daughter Nancy, who is 55 and lives in Maryland. “She was definitely a go-getter, a force of nature whom people didn’t say no to.”

Her mother was a master-organizer and a master-delegator, Nancy Robbins recalled.

“Since she died, I’ve heard from lots of people, who said they thought heaven was now becoming a much-more organized place,” she said.

Her mother’s organization skills were reinforced by her people skills, Nancy Robbins added. “She was really good at knowing what somebody would be good at,” she said.

Her mother also had the support of her father, Daniel, who died in 2016, Nancy Robbins said. “He was my mom’s staunchest but quietest champion,” she said.

I had not known of the elder Nancy Robbins when a reader suggested that she would be a good person to put on the list of Remarkable Rochesterians. I took the suggestion to heart, and I also began an email friendship with Robbins. She knew a ton of people and, well into her 90s, nominated other Rochesterians for the Remarkables list.

A longtime resident of Brighton, Robbins was living at the Highlands of Pittsford at the time of her death.

She had been in declining health for a while, her daughter Nancy said, but she was determined to make it to 100, which she did on Jan. 28. Thus, she was honored at a birthday bash organized by both her daughters, Nancy and her sister, Christina Hart.

In making it to the party, their mother, a force of nature, had, once again, met her goal.

From his home in Geneseo, Livingston County, retired senior editor Jim Memmott, writes Remarkable Rochester, who we were, who we are. He can be reached at jmemmott@gannett.com or write Box 274, Geneseo, NY 14454.

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Nancy Robbins remembered for supporting Rochester families in need