Extracted from The Washington Post (Washington, DC)
Bob John Robison
Bob John Robison, 82, a retired Navy captain who headed the Washington office of the Hill & Knowlton public relations firm in the early and mid-1980s, died Aug. 7 at a hospital in Williamsburg. He had congestive heart failure.
After retiring from the Navy in 1967, Capt. Robison worked nationwide for companies that had a defense contracting arm. He did lobbying work for ITT International; was executive vice president of public relations for General Dynamics Corp.; and was acting head of government relations for FMC Corp., where he played a key role in getting the company's Bradley Fighting Vehicle funded and operational.
He headed Hill & Knowlton's Dallas office before coming to its Washington office in 1981.
In the late 1980s, he formed Robison International, a defense consulting business whose clients included FMC, McDonnell Douglas Corp. and British Aerospace.
He was born in Burkburnett, Tex., and raised in Dallas and Baton Rouge, La. He served as a Navy pilot in the Pacific theater during World War II, at one point jettisoning airplane fuel from his carrier after a kamikaze attack during the Leyte Gulf campaign.
Remaining in the Navy after the war, his later assignments included Senate liaison officer for the Navy, executive officer of the aircraft carrier Independence and captain of the oiler Severn. In the early 1960s, he was a political science graduate of George Washington University.
His decorations included the Distinguished Flying Cross, three awards of the Air Medal and the Navy Commendation Medal.
He moved to Williamsburg from Washington in 1994.
His wife of 60 years, Marion Wilder ``Nan'' Robison, died in 2003.
Survivors include two children, Robert G. Robison of Scarsdale, N.Y., and Suzanne Spooner of Baltimore; and five grandchildren.
Sunday, August 14, 2005