As a rising real estate broker, lawyer and mortgage services specialist in Texas during the 1960s, James Robinson had already committed himself to increasing the availability of affordable housing. Thanks to a chance encounter with Martin Luther King Jr., having been seated next to the civil rights leader aboard an airliner, Robinson became an inspired champion of the cause.
Robinson was drawn to King and to Atlanta. Impressed as well by the city’s welcoming leaders and talented developers, he chose to make his home here and to be a leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s fair housing initiative.
He established the consulting firm Urban East Housing, which provided technical assistance to nongovernmental organizations sponsoring housing developments. Throughout his career, he helped to develop housing for thousands of Georgians.
Herman J. Russell, founder of the Atlanta construction and real estate conglomerate that bears his name, said no one he knew was more knowledgeable about the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s affordable-housing regulations than Robinson.
“Jim cared deeply for the have-nots of our society,” Russell said, “and was dedicated to making their lives better.”
James Stuart Robinson, 79, of Atlanta died on Nov. 24 of natural causes at Geneva Hospice. His memorial service is noon Monday at First Congregational Church, 105 Courtland St., Atlanta. Willie A. Watkins Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. Time and place for a service in Houston will be announced at a later date.
Robinson was raised in Houston and earned degrees at Fisk University in Nashville and Texas Southern University in Houston. After serving in the U.S. Marines, Robinson joined his father’s Houston real estate firm. He was involved in the development of numerous housing projects in his hometown, and in Dallas and Minneapolis as well. Years later, while living in Atlanta, he partnered with a younger attorney in Houston and divided his time between the two cities.
Atlanta architect Paul Muldawer worked extensively with Robinson during the 1970s on a number of projects. He said Robinson was a creative and charismatic genius “who did more under (Housing and Urban Development) programs to build affordable housing than anyone in the United States. He helped nonprofits and churches make something from nothing by finessing HUD programs.”
Muldawer said all their joint undertakings in Atlanta were successful, including high-rises at Wheat Street Towers and Martin Luther King Jr. Village.
“Jim wanted to do more than build affordable housing,” Muldawer said. “He wanted to build loving communities.”
It was Robinson’s idea, Muldawer said, to include space for commercial and office use in these housing developments, adding, “Jim was thinking about mixed-use before there was a word to describe it.”
Muldawer said he did $20 million worth of business with Robinson over a seven-year period and never once bothered with a contract. “That’s the level of trust that Jim engendered,” Muldawer said.
Survivors include three daughters, Jehni Robinson of South Pasadena, Calif., Joi Richardson of Redlands, Calif., and Jessica Stinson of Atlanta; a son, James Robinson Jr. of Atlanta; a sister, Josie Johnson of Minneapolis; and four grandchildren.
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