RobinRohan has died

I figure the forum should know. It had been a while since he had posted, his name hadn't shown up on the board when I was here, and he hadn't answered some emails, so yesterday I called the school where he teaches and they told me he had died. I didn't get the date straight in my head but it had to be the 30th although somebody mentioned the 7th. In any case it was on a Saturday morning during a class he was teaching. He said he wasn't feeling well and left the classroom. They found him on the floor either in the corridor or in the men's room -- I talked to two different people -- and he was DOA at the hospital, of an apparent heart attack. He was a smoker. I was told they've already had the memorial service so I think it couldn't have been the 7th that he died. Maybe that was the day of the service.

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Edit to add address of memorial site (first posted in Message 75), with a reminder that the family is comforted by hearing memories and appreciations of their loved one, and to encourage anyone who enjoyed Robin's participation at this site to post a few words there as well.

Biography

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I've had my own moments of disbelief. Could he have put the school administrators up to it? Maybe he just wanted to escape his current life, run away or something. It's very hard to believe and I wish it weren't true. I'm going to miss him.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

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For me Robin's death is a great loss, even though I only knew him via email and on EvC. I felt a special affinity with him which to some extent he seemed to share despite his rejection of Christian belief. I considered him in particular clear-headed, logical and rational in the comments he made and queries he raised, although others here said the opposite about him. They were wrong.

We exchanged at least a few words every few days. That's how I knew something was seriously wrong after more than a week of no contact at all. I knew he was unusually busy this semester so I chalked up his silence to that for a while, but by this last weekend I had a terrible dread about it and finally had to call his school on Monday.

I did get to know quite a bit about his real life but I feel he was a very private person who would not want that part of his life brought into this. His life here was a life of ideas.

I can give you the particulars that he was 58, he lived in the Houston area, had been born there and lived in Texas his whole life. He was married and had children and grandchildren. His father had had ambitions to be a writer that were never realized, and Robin seems to have followed in his footsteps. The last discussions he and I had were about excerpts from some writing I was encouraging him to do.

I'd like to second what Buz said. Death can come awfully swiftly, in the middle of a sentence, the middle of a thought. Iano and I have been hoping for a long time that Robin would give himself to Christ but he seems to have resisted it to the end. We can still hope there was a last-minute conversion but there's no way to know. He certainly seemed to have an attraction to the things of God. He respected the Biblical text, though mostly from a literary point of view. Many of his favorite quotations, including the signature that has been quoted here, come from great Christian men of God, such as William Law, Jonathan Edwards, Pascal, Samuel Johnson. Sometimes he came under attack here for his defending of the "fundies" and was mistaken for one at times. It's terrible for someone to be so near and yet so far. You never know when death is going to take away all possibility of another chance.

His 58th birthday was on September 25th, just five days before he died. I kidded him about being so old, though he was younger than I, but I also seriously sent him the quote from Ecclesiastes that he said his father used to recite, and told him that instead of just enjoying the sound of the rolling words that would give him spine tingles, he ought to take it to heart:

Ecc 12:1 Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them; ...Ecc 12:5 ...because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets: Ecc 12:6 Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern. Ecc 12:7 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. Ecc 12:8 Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher; all [is] vanity.

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He said he did get a plaque for being most popular teacher at some point.

Anyone here inclined to pray should pray for his wife in particular at this time, and for one of his older brothers who is dying of lung cancer, and that brother's wife who was just diagnosed with leukemia. Who would ever have thought they'd have outlived Robin.

Me too, Brad. He said he understood you, that it was worth the pains to figure out what you were saying.

I'm not really in a position to convey condolences to the family. Robin used his work email in our communications and didn't give his home address. He knew more about me than I did about him in that respect. I did google him of course and I know where he lived and COULD write to his family, or phone, but since he didn't give me the information himself I think that could be an unwelcome intrusion. I pray for them.

And I have to say I agree with crashfrog right above your post. Well put, crash.

I'm glad I had some place I could call to check on Robin. I guess it's a matter of whether you want others to check on you or not. I gave Robin some family email addresses in case I stopped responding to his emails. Most of the time on the internet it doesn't really matter. You stop posting and nobody notices or if they do they don't care much.

I'm also very glad I started this thread because Robin was well liked here and will be missed.

I think it would be fine to have a memorial forum, but as many have said, it's probably very unusual that a poster's death would be recognized.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

I've been corresponding with a teacher at his school who says she'd be happy to talk about him here although she didn't know him particularly well. I gave her the link so she may join us. And she gave me a link to a memorial website where there are pictures and tributes to Robin, and the opportunity to respond if anyone would like to.

Biography

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I think whoever would like to write one should.

I haven't had time to think about it, I have to admit. Maybe hold off on it until later. Could collect things people want to say and maybe I or someone else could put them together in one message if that's best.

Well, that's certainly something to think about, Ian. I was reluctant at first even to post the memorial site. So you're saying just don't mention the forum in a tribute or anything like that? But as Parasomnium pointed out, Robin did show EvC to his wife. I guess I'm not sure what to do.

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You make sense. I agree. I think I would use my EvC nom de plume there too if I post a tribute.

Since Moose withdrew his statement I will withdraw my response to it.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.