Jack Robins
(February 17, 1919 – December 23, 2015)
Jack Robins, a member of First Fandom, was the last surviving member of the Futurians. His birth name is given as Jack Rubinson in N3F Member Spotlight/Interview and Knight's The Futurians. Robins wrote that his older brother had changed his name to Robins, and he wanted to have the same family name as his brother.
The Member Spotlight feature was conducted by Heath Row and Jon D. Swartz and appeared in the September, 2009, issue (Vol. 9, No. 3) of The National Fantasy Fan.
Robins was invited by Walter Kubilius to attend a meeting of the ISA, Robins joined that organization and helped form the Futurians, attending its first meeting in 1938.
Robins had attended Boys High School in Brooklyn and invited a former classmate of his, Isaac Asimov, to join the Futurians after seeing Asimov's name in the lettercols. In January 1938 as a member of the Futurians, along with Donald A. Wollheim, Harry Dockweiler, John B. Michel, and Frederik Pohl, Robins organized the Committee for the Political Advancement of Science Fiction. Despite the Exclusion Act, Robins was permitted to attend the NYCon. In the 1940s, he published ten issues of the fanzine Looking Ahead.
After he left the Futurians, Robins received a Ph.D. in Chemistry (he and Asimov were the only two Futurians with doctorates) and went to work in Tamaqua, Pennsylvania, for the Atlas Powder Co. — makers of TNT — where he spent 25 years. He maintained an interest in science fiction. He also published Scientific Thinker.
He was awarded the First Fandom Hall of Fame and made a N3F Life Member in 2012.
He was the subject of an Original Member Spotlight by Jon D. Swartz and John L. Coker III in the New Series #45, 3rd Quarter, 2015 issue of Scientifiction: The First Fandom Report. The First Fandom Annual 2018 (August, 2018) by Coker and Swartz features the life and work of Robins. This publication is described in Scientifiction (New Series #57, 3rd Quarter, 2018), together with a photo of Robins.
His wife of 66 years, Lottie, died in January, 2019. Jack and Lottie had two children together. See here. A remembrance of Lottie by John L. Coker III and Jon D. Swartz appeared in Scientifiction, New Series #58, 4th Quarter, 2018.
Awards, Honors and GoHships:
- 2012 -- N3F Life Member, First Fandom Hall of Fame
Related links://'
- "Jack Robins: Dr. Robins, That Is" by Frederik Pohl
- "A Little More About Jack Robins" by Frederik Pohl
- The National Fantasy Fan, Vol. 9 No. 3
| From Fancyclopedia 1, ca. 1944 |
| Name taken by Jack Rubinson about 1939. |
| Person | 1919—2015 |
| This is a biography page. Please extend it by adding more information about the person, such as fanzines and apazines published, awards, clubs, conventions worked on, GoHships, impact on fandom, external links, anecdotes, etc. See Standards for People and The Naming of Names. |
