Joe Robeson was a tough athlete and educator who endeared himself to students and staff

Editor’s note: Each Sunday, The Herald-Mail runs “A Life Remembered.” Each story in this continuing series takes a look back — through the eyes of family, friends, co-workers and others — at a member of the community who died recently. Today’s “A Life Remembered” is about Joseph William Robeson, who died on March 25 at the age of 87. His obituary appeared in The Herald-Mail on March 28.

When Joe Robeson was principal at Boonsboro High School, he took a lot of heat for banning three students from commencement exercises because they violated the rules he had laid out to prevent shenanigans during rehearsal.

Years later, one of them wrote him a note of thanks.

“That was kind of an a-ha moment for (the student) about accepting responsibility,” daughter Kathy Valentine said. "He did something wrong, he knew what the consequences were, and there was no amount of pressure that Dad would have caved in to to change his mind."

The outpouring of love from former students, faculty and friends for the tough-but-fair educator after he died was kind of an a-ha moment for Kathy.

“Until he died, I never realized how much he was involved in their lives,” she said.

Former students and teachers reached out with remembrances and packed the funeral home.

“It was overwhelming at the visitation how many people literally said, ‘He changed my life,’” she said.

A German exchange student who had attended his school in the 1960s left a message on the funeral home's website about Robeson's positive effect on her.

"All those years ago and she only knew him for six months," Kathy marveled.

A student who had been at risk sent him a card during his final days in the hospital telling him how he changed his life for the better.

"Those kinds of things meant the world to Dad," Kathy said.

'And so I did'

Stephanne (Gouker) Saunders said her lifelong relationship with Robeson began when he called her and fellow cheerleader, Kim (Albert) Hawbaker, into his office for "using too much hip action."

She fondly remembers him setting and maintaining boundaries and announcing over the school PA system that girls should wear modest skirts at least as long as their fingertips with their arms at their sides.

"Now that I have sons, he was actually 100% on target," she said with a laugh.

His greatest gift to her was belief in herself.

She wanted to go to college, but knew her family couldn't afford it.

"And he said, 'Stephanne, you're a straight-A student. Apply for every scholarship,'" she said. "'You can go to college.' And so I did."

Stephanne graduated from Boonsboro in 1986, earned a bachelor's degree in business administration and now works as a marketing consultant.

"He gave me the confidence to believe in myself," she said.

About a decade ago, the two former cheerleaders accompanied Robeson on a trip to a portion of the C&O Canal where he loved to watch the turtles.

While there, his heart acted up and they had to enlist a passerby to help them get him to his car.

"And that kind of sealed our fate," Stephanne said. "He carried us through high school and at that moment we carried him.

"And so our relationship was forever sealed."

Friends and family

Robeson rarely missed a school athletic contest, could remember students from decades earlier if he bumped into them at the supermarket and attended their class reunions.

But he was just as involved with his wife, Betty, his son, Keith, and daughter Kathy.

“The man never slept, I guess,” Kathy said. "We never felt like we sacrificed anything as a family for all these other people.

“He managed to raise us and have a wonderful marriage with my mom. I never heard them argue, and I never heard my father say a cuss word. Ever.”

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Robeson was born the seventh of nine children in Mt. Savage and grew up poor during the Great Depression.

After graduating from Beall High School in Frostburg, Md., where he met and began dating Betty, he joined the U.S. Navy and served as a radio operator so he could go to college on the G.I. Bill.

He attended Fairmont State and Shepherd colleges in West Virginia, earning degrees in business administration and English. He earned a master's degree in English from Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania and a master's equivalence in administration and supervision from several other schools.

He and Betty married in 1956.

Robeson began teaching English at South Hagerstown High School in 1959, where he also coached junior varsity basketball and founded the Senior Boys Club to teach young men the importance of community service.

The club's projects included helping Haven Hoffman, who was known around the Hagerstown area as Mrs. Santa for her annual drive to provide food and toys to needy people at Christmastime.

Robeson ran a tight ship in the gymnasium. Profanity was banned, and he'd pause the game if fans became unruly.

He served as vice principal at Boonsboro High School from 1970 to 1972, when he began his tenure as principal until his retirement in 1990.

Tough but fair

He ran a tight ship at home, too.

Kathy once got kicked off the school bus for bad behavior and figured she could walk home fast enough to get there first so he wouldn't find out.

"He was sitting in the driveway waiting for me," she said with a laugh. "Somehow he found out and he was waiting there for me to explain."

Then there was the time when, as a teen, she and her friends were sneaking nips from a bottle of schnapps in her bedroom before they took it with them to a party, thinking they had gotten away with it. But they left behind a clue.

"He knew something was up," Kathy said. "He found the bag, and the bag was still shaped like a bottle.

"I'm sure I got grounded for some period of time, but it was never harsh or unreasonable," she said.

He was also a fun dad who was involved in his children's activities and took the family on summer vacations to visit their numerous relatives.

He mellowed a bit when his grandsons came along.

Kathy said his interactions with her son, Nicholas Valentine, who was born in 1998, are among her fondest memories.

Robeson's service in the Navy influenced Nicholas to join the U.S. Marine Corps, where he is now a sergeant.

"He would say that Pappy was his best friend," Kathy said.

And Robeson got to repeat the pappy process in 2007 when Keith's son, Trajan Robeson was born.

Another of Kathy's fondest memories was when she decided to move back to the area from California and Robeson flew out to drive back with her, spending 12 hours a day together in her car. She recalled that he couldn't drive a stick shift, so most of his duty behind the wheel was on the flat roads of Kansas.

Robeson took up running late in life and ran a 10-mile circuit around his home off Jefferson Boulevard several times a week.

"He used to be a basketball player in pickup leagues at the old (YMCA)," she said. "He got injured and took up running in his late 40s.

"And he became like Forest Gump. He just ran everywhere."

Robeson competed in 5K and 10K events and finished the grueling JFK 50 Mile ultramarathon 11 times. He was inducted into the race's 500 Mile Club.

"Probably other than having his kids, getting his 500 Mile Club initiation was one of his happiest days," Kathy said.

JFK Race Director Mike Spinnler said Robeson completed the race for the 10th time when he was 58 years old and again 11 years later when he just shy of his 70th birthday.

He said that few people know that he became race director during a meeting in Robeson's basement, taking the baton from former director Buzz Sawyer.

"He's a part of the history of this event," Mike said.

Besides his athletic abilities, Robeson was a leader.

"The word I heard so many people use about him is genuine," Mike said. "He had this great strength of leadership, the type of leadership you just love because he was strong without being overbearing."

Robeson made people feel important and that their goals were achievable, according to Mike.

"He made you believe you could do things that you didn't think you could do," Mike said.

Robeson's life was one well lived, he said.

"I don't know many people who packed into 87 years what Joe did and touched so many people," he said.

The home stretch

Sadly, she said, his body failed him in his final years and he spent the last four homebound.

"It was tough to see him in that shape," Kathy said.

He struggled with the role reversal of Kathy taking care of him and Betty.

"And I said, 'dad, after all that you and mom have given Keith and I and our sons and our families, this is the least we can do,''' Kathy said.

"My brother and I always assumed that he would die running, have a massive heart attack and somebody would find him along the road," she said. "And he would have been happy."

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: A Life Remembered: Joe Robeson ran a tight ship, and ran and ran