Vivian Hawkins Robinson (AUGUSTA, Ga.)

AUGUSTA, Ga. - Funeral services for Dr. Vivian Ureaka Hawkins Robinson will be held on Saturday, February 21, 2009 at the Gilbert-Lambuth Chapel on the Paine College Campus at 2:00 p.m. The interment will be at Mt. Olive Memorial Cemetery following the services. Dr. Robinson died Friday, February 13, at 6:15 a.m., at University Hospital in Augusta, Georgia. She was 87. Dr. Robinson was born in Chicago, Illinois on March 24, 1921. She was the third of 11 children. Her father was the Reverend C.M. Hawkins and her mother was Susie Martin Hawkins. Early on she set for herself a goal to work in the field of Christian Education. Upon graduating from Lane College she continued her active participation in the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. Dr. Robinson earned a Masters degree from Atlanta University, a Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska. She also studied at Harvard, Yale, the University of Minnesota and the University of Southern California. She has been honored for years of service by many organizations including the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, The Women's Missionary Society, CME Church, the Gamma Alpha Omega Chapter of AKA, The Council on Church Union and Paine College. Over the past 60 years, Dr. Robinson's journey took her to the far corners of the globe, including trips to China, Russia, the capitols of Europe, the British Isles, the Middle East and South America. Her body of work as a lay leader in the CME Church is legendary. In brief, she has served as past president of the Georgia Annual Conference Women's Missionary Society, local and district president of the Augusta District Women's Missionary Society, Missionary Institute Director for five years in the Fifth Episcopal District and five years in the Sixth Episcopal District. She was the first woman to be Academic Dean at Paine College; the first person (man or woman) to hold an endowed chair (Callaway Endowed Chair) at Paine College; the first woman and first African American to receive the prestigious Governor's Award in the Humanities for outstanding achievement in the humanities; the first lay person and the first African-American woman to become president of the Consultation on Church Union; and the first African-American woman to be elected president of the National Association of Departments of English. Dr. Vivian U. Robinson, wife of the late Rev. James Ezekiel Robinson, leaves to cherish her memory two daughters, Gwendolyn Durnell (Bill) and Juanita Benjamin (Frederick) all of Augusta; two grandchildren, Frederick Benjamin Jr., Boston and Cynthia Benjamin Williams, Augusta; sister, Marjorie Hawkins Small of Chicago and brother, Raybon M. Hawkins (Doris) of Memphis, Tennessee; three great- grandchildren, Maria and R'reale Williams and Ajani Mainer; Godson, Kenneth Thomas (Ethelene) and a host of nieces and nephews. Sign the guestbook at AugustaChronicle.com Augusta Chronicle-February 19, 2009