Fred Thurman Robinson, III, was born to Fred Thurman Robinson, Jr. and Lillie Pullen Robinson, on June 26, 1941, in Greenville, MS, and passed from this life on June 14, 2023 in Mobile, Alabama.
Fred was a graduate of Indianola High School, Delta State University and the University of Arkansas. He was of the Baptist faith and an Eagle Scout, serving as a Scoutmaster while stationed in Norfolk, VA. He served in the United States Naval Air Force on the USS Intrepid aircraft carrier when it was deployed to retrieve the space capsule returning Gus Grissom from his suborbital space flight.
After obtaining a BS in Education, Fred began a long career in education teaching science in Greenville, MS Public Schools. Summer employment at Delta Branch Experiment Station doing scientific photography whetted his appetite for more education. This led him and his young family to Fayetteville and agricultural research. He became well known as an aerial photographer using infrared photography to detect crop damage from insecticides. Upon completion of his master’s degree, Fred returned to the classroom, teaching in Fayetteville Public Schools and soon had the opportunity to relocate to Southeast Arkansas to be closer to family.
For two years he directed the career education program for Monticello Public Schools with summers devoted to the US Youth Conservation Corp, employing young people and their adult supervisors in wildlife and recreation areas in Drew and Bradley County.
Fred became director of the Warren Area Vocational Technical Center, helping to provide vocational technical education to students from Bradley and surrounding counties for over twenty years.
He is survived by his wife, Jeri Robinson of Foley, AL, and three daughters, Julie King (David) and Laura Thornton (Doug) of Warren, AR, and Alana Harris (Ryan) of San Antonio, TX, one grandson, Andrew Harris, six granddaughters, Katherine King Kuhn, Emily Berryman Weeks, Sara King Hicks, Riley Greenwood, Megan Harris and Erin Harris, and four great granddaughters.