Eulogy for David and Lucretia Robinson February 2023
“Life is a complex puzzle, but it can be solved.”
My uncle David and my aunt Lucretia never said those exact words to me, but as far as I can tell, it is what they believed. They taught me that the world was rational and that the motives of people and the forces of history could be understood and mastered if one kept their wits about them.
I was blessed to have an extended family that was very good to me in my childhood. At various times I was painfully lonely and though I had some good friends, I remember feeling very alone more often than is healthy. However, my three sets of Aunts and Uncles near Washington D.C. and in Seattle Washington made me feel loved and welcomed and I would visit them often. Each of the three pairs gave me something different. In the case of David and Lucretia, it was the joy of intellectualism.
Both of them loved science, history, politics, philosophy, economics, and many other topics and they also kindled in me a similar fiery love for things academic. I remember us debating and arguing late into the night on many evenings. I remember them taking me and their daughter Julianna to museums and other cultural locations. During my teenage years, being with them was among some of my happiest moments.
I went on to earn four university degrees and in no small part, they helped launch me in that direction, but that is not all that they gave me. They often talked about what makes for good relationships and how to live the good life. I didn’t always agree with them, but they made me ponder what it means to be good to people and what in life is worthwhile. As I have grown up and grown older, I have thought often about them and talked about what they meant to me with various people. In short, they made a huge impact on me and they helped me hold onto my sanity in my troubled teenage years.
Some years ago, they moved to their beloved country of Greece, where the gods live, and I am no longer in contact with them. They were both fierce people who asserted that life could be mastered if one remained rational. I am told that they chose to meet death the same way that they lived life, on their own terms. I am in shock and I have been thinking about them almost constantly. They contributed a lot to who I am and I will be forever grateful for the love that they gave me.