Al began his long tenure at Temple School of Pharmacy in September 1967, the same year that Drs. Steve Paul and Tully Speaker joined the

Cutting farewell cake at the School’s party

faculty.  His initial responsibility was under Drs. Baker and Golder in the chemistry labs where he bought and inventoried all products and glassware. Under Dean Titus, that job extended into all faculty labs and also to include monitoring exams, setting up student lab demonstrations, locker assignments, and scheduling teaching assistants. Until they ended in l997, Al was a PY2 class chaperone for the infamous Lilly trips. The five year pharmacy curriculum was in place when Al came to Temple and he recalls there being more male than females students. Over the years, he has watched the entering students become more credentialed, more diversified and more laden with responsibilities and jobs

Throughout his years at the Pharmacy School, Al became very involved in sports, serving as the coach for the School’s basketball team. He was involved with the School’s fraternities and sororities, and is a fully-fledged Brother Phi Delta Chi.

Al says what he has enjoyed the most about this job has been working with the students and teaching them to respect every person on the totem pole, from the maintenance staff to the administrators.

Born in Virginia and raised in NY and Philadelphia, Al attended Johnson C. Smith College in South Carolina where he studied Business. He attended the Bearins Institute and the University of Pennsylvania before he was drafted into the Army where he served 5 years, including three years in the Reserves. He was stationed in Germany for three years and walked the Berlin Wall for several months. Al was honorably discharged with the rank of Staff Sergeant.

When asked about his retirement plans, Al indicated that he plans to do a lot of traveling and girlwatching. Al will work part-time at the School until his replacement is hired and trained. We will miss Al, his outfits, his laughter and his consistency in the labs and in the halls. Al was as well known for his stylish and coordinated outfits as he was for his memory which stored minutia, current facts and long-lost data.

Al and Dr. Doukas at faculty farewell dinner

When faculty and staff asked Al how he would like to be honored for his years of service, he said he would like his portrait to be hung in Laboratory 415. To that end, we have established the Al Robinson Portrait Fund. Contributions to create a portrait can be made payable to: the Al Robinson Portrait Fund/Temple School of Pharmacy. For more information, contact Christopher VanVessem, Director of Development, at 215-707-9457.
 

Al receives a Temple Chair	Al in the lab