A mentor with quiet wisdom. A supporter of the leadership of African American Catholics. A faith-filled priest. These are some of the ways members of the Los Angeles Catholic community described Father Fisher Robinson Jr., SVD, devoted Divine Word Missionary who died Oct. 18 of multiple natural causes at age 78.
"He was like a father to all of us," said Deacon Willard Hall, who serves at St. John the Evangelist Church in Los Angeles. Father Robinson had lived with his Divine Word Community at St. John the Evangelist in South Los Angeles, since 1989. He mentored deacons, members of the Knights of Peter Claver as well as new priests serving at the parish. "He would do anything that was possible to help us. He taught me about the altar and helped me to prepare homilies. He brought a lot of wisdom with him," Deacon Hall told The Tidings.
The church had hosted a youth group for African American youth from various parishes. "They came together under his leadership to help make them leaders," said Deacon Hall. "Young people need guidance, and he was really good at giving guidance."
Blessed with a long and productive life, Father Robinson was born Aug. 12, 1929, in Abbeville, Louisiana, to Winnie and Fisher Robinson, Sr. He entered the Society of the Divine Word in Bay St. Louis, Miss. in 1943, pronounced his First Vows in 1950, in Techny, Ill. and was ordained a priest on May 1, 1958, in Bay St. Louis. He would have celebrated his 50th Jubilee as a priest next May.
He was first assigned as assistant prefect of Minor Seminary at Bay St. Louis, from 1959-61, then as associate pastor of Notre Dame Church in St. Martinville, LA, until 1963, when he was assigned to Divine Word Seminary in Riverside, Calif. as a teacher of math, science and Latin. In 1967 he became principal of Verbum Dei High School in Los Angeles, where he served for 13 years, and continued to serve as a consultant and member of the Board of Directors. In 1980 he was appointed pastor of St. Malachy Church in South Central Los Angeles.
Marian Fussey met Father Robinson in the mid 1970s when she was principal of St. Odilia School and he was principal of Verbum Dei High School. When he was appointed Episcopal vicar of African American Catholics for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in 1986 by Cardinal Roger Mahony, she came to work with him.
In that position he and Fussey reached out to Catholics and the un-churched for the purpose of evangelizing and educating the laity about their baptismal calling. He was a founder and played a vital role in the National Black Catholic Congress. They traveled primarily throughout Los Angeles and the Western United States seeking to unite Black Catholics.
"We worked for 14 years in prayer, song and traveling for the National Black Catholic Congress," recalled Fussey. "He taught me to pack my suitcases with just what I needed and hit the road and go.
"He showed me how to preach liturgically, how to break open the word of God, and how to write in a way that the black experience could be talked about and exposed to whomever we met," said Fussey, a parishioner at Transfiguration Church in South Los Angeles.
Father Robinson sought to minister to people of various ethnic groups, including Caribbeans, Nigerians and Haitians. The Nigerian Ibo community gave him a tribal chieftan outfit and named him honorary chief of the Ibo clan, remembered Fussey.
Whenever they faced obstacles, Father Robinson's faith was unwavering, said Fussey, a mother to four daughters. "'The Lord will always take us through it,'" she remembered him saying. "'God is a good God and all we have to do is trust in him and he will take us through it.'"
A priest of priests, Father Robinson (Robbie, as he was affectionately called), also dedicated himself to service in both his community and the greater Archdiocese and served on numerous boards. Among them, he was a member of the Los Angeles Council of Priests, Archdiocesan Board of Consultors, Board of Ecumenical Center for Black Church Studies, was a founding member of the Black Lay Catholic Ministry and an active member of the 4th Degree Knights and Ladies of Peter Claver. He was a significant mediator in bridging the Black and Korean communities during times of racial crisis in Los Angeles and reached out to the Latino community as well.
"He was always inclusive," said Harry Wiley, a parishioner at St. Raphael Church in South Los Angeles. "There were not too many projects where we didn't have co-chairs. He thought people needed to work together."
Wiley recalled meeting the priest in the early 1970s at Wiley's gasoline station in South Central Los Angeles. The lines were long and he invited the priest to come when the station was closed so he wouldn't have to wait in line. They became good friends from that point on. They also started working together to promote vocations among young African American youth.
"Along with Josephites, the SVDs really took an interest in letting black men come into their order without any major encumbrances," said Wiley. "Father Robinson was truly one humble man of God. He never was interested in that his name has to be on the project. He had tremendous skill in working behind the scenes and pushing other folks up front. Father was a mentor to a tremendous amount of people."
Andrew Shaw, director of the African American Catholic Center for Evangelization (AACCFE) concurred. Describing Father Robinson as a man of "quiet wisdom," Shaw said the priest "was the kind of person who was a mover and an activist more than a spokesperson. If he wanted something done, he wouldn't give a long speech about how you should do it. He would step in and help to do the work."
In 2004 the center honored Father Robinson with the Daniel Rudd Award for a lifetime of service to the community.
Recently Father Robinson had two awards named after him. Last year during the first annual Bishop Carl Anthony Fisher Awards in support of vocations, Father Robinson presented Bishop Stephen Blaire of Stockton with the Father Fisher Robinson Award for the bishop's prior service to the African American community in Los Angeles.
This September Father Robinson, an avid golf player, also presented a trophy called "The Robbie" to St. Eugene Church in Los Angeles, the winners of the AACCFE golf tournament.
While Father Robinson was accomplishing so many feats for Black Catholics and the archdiocese, he never forgot his first commitment as an SVD. He served as district superior, on the Provincial Council three different terms, and on SVD local and national committees for Retirement, Vocations and Pastoral Activities. He was elected delegate to the SVD General Chapter in Rome.
In 2001 Cardinal Mahony honored Father Robinson and said, "Your work and ministry has been a tremendous gift to us all. As a priest, you have accompanied many people on their journey of faith and strengthened their commitment to live the Gospel. As a leader in the Church you have mentored many others to recognize and develop their own gifts and have encouraged people to put these gifts at the service of the Church at-large. As a faithful disciple of Jesus, you have helped bring the Good News to all people regardless of their ethnicity or culture."
Despite increasing health concerns, Deacon Hall said Father Robinson never considered himself retired. "He always thought he was on a new venture. He loved to be involved. He loved for somebody to lead him. If you said, 'I need you,' he answered, 'Yep. When do we start?'"
He traveled with some difficulty to both the National Black Congress and the Knights of Peter Claver National Convention in July.
"He was so happy to make those two," said Shaw, and to see people he had worked with for years. "It was his last run around the park."
Funeral Mass was said Oct. 23 at St. John the Evangelist Church, and he was interred at Crestlawn Pierce Bros. in Riverside.
Father Robinson leaves sisters Juanita Harang of Houston, Texas, Willie Mae Zenon of Omaha, Nebraska, nieces and nephews, and other relatives. The Divine Word Missionaries contributed to this article. |