Phyllis Elizabeth Robinson

Phyllis Elizabeth Robinson, 91, passed away early Wednesday morning December 5 at Brookdale/Sprucewood in Durham, NH. Born Phyllis E. Scott on March 17, 1927 in Everett, MA, she grew up in Upton, MA, the youngest of four children, including Frances, Doris, and Grace. She often recounted tales of life at the family farm on Christian Hill Road during the Great Depression, including a hectic afternoon trying to gather in the chickens as they blew about in what turned out to be the Hurricane of 1938.

Phyllis graduated from high school in 1940 and trained as an accountant. During World War II she clerked for George F. Blake, Inc., a steel supply company in Worcester. Phyllis married John Brewster Robinson, also from Upton, on October 25, 1947 after his World War II service as a U.S. Marine. The couple began their family in Southbridge, MA where John started work as an installer for New England Telephone and worked his way up.

John and Phyllis built their first house from scratch on a steep hill in Grafton, MA and raised their three sons J Dennis (1951), Brian Scott (1953) and Jeffrey Alan (1957). They moved to Bedford, NH in 1960 where Phyllis was active as a deacon at the Bedford Presbyterian Church. She was a skilled quilt and braided rug maker and, thanks to her accounting expertise, managed the family finances through decades of retirement. She loved all things Irish and once visited the Emerald Isle on a tour led by her idol, singer Tommy Makem. During the trip she traveled to the ancestral home of her father. Phyllis often spent summers at a family cottage on Cape Cod in Falmouth, not far from where she had summered in her youth.

John and Phyllis lived independently at their beloved ranch-style home encircled by white birches on Ministerial Branch in Bedford, NH for 57 years. In the spring of 2018 they moved to the Brookdale/Sprucewood assisted living facility in Durham where they celebrated their 71st wedding anniversary. Phyllis was predeceased in 2016 by her son Brian S. Robinson, a renowned Maine archaeologist. She is survived by her husband John Brewster Robinson (95) and her sons Jeffrey, a carpenter, and J. Dennis, a writer, by her grandsons Ryan, John Scott, and Paul Kirk, and by daughter-in-law Ann Robinson.

A public memorial service was held on Wednesday, December 12, 2018 at the historic Bedford Presbyterian Church. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Deacons Fund at Bedford Presbyterian, 4 Church Road, Bedford, NH, 03110.