Lottie Robins (1915 – 2018)

By John L. Coker III: Lottie Levin Robins, who was happily married for 66 years to Jack Robins (a member of the Futurians, First Fandom and N3F) died peacefully on November 18, 2018.

Lottie was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, on September 18, 1915 to immigrant parents from the Ukraine – the last of five children.  She graduated high school in 1932.  Wrote her first play at age 9 and wanted to be a writer from that day on.  From age 11 to 18 Lottie was published every Saturday in the Winnipeg Free Press Young Authors pages: letters, essays and a novel.  At 17 she won first prize in a Young Zionist essay contest.  At 19, first prize coast-to-coast in the same contest.  At 22, in charge of music and drama and wrote a daily newsletter and was Assistant Director at an 8-week camp for 500 children.  During that time she wrote a weekly column for a three provincial Anglo-Jewish newspaper and read every book in the library about writing.   She also was secretary for her attorney brother, social worker for a Children’s Bureau and a student nurse at a children’s hospital for a year.

In 1945, Lottie left for Brooklyn where she worked as a medical assistant for a doctor’s office for 4 years until she met Jack. They immediately found common interests: writing, photography, classical music and politics.  After dating for only 5 weeks, they became engaged and were married on December 25, 1949.  In 1956, when their children were 3 and 5, Jack went back to college full-time, attending Brooklyn Polytechnical Institute on a fellowship where he received his Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry. 

After she and Jack started to take weekly college courses, Lottie was invited to be an instructor in Adult Education for 5 years, teaching non-fiction and writing memoirs.  She eventually published in Guideposts, Writer’s Digest, The Writer, Canadian Writer’s Journal, Saturday Evening Post, Jack and Jill, McCalls, the New York Times, and many others.  She was Executive Editor of a two-language magazine, transliterated Yiddish and English for Rodel Press, and wrote 400 columns for Canadian and USA newspapers.

She had many other interests, including photography, embroidery, sewing, making dolls, quilting and Persian rugs.

Science Fiction was such an important part of their marriage and they got to know many of the people who became famous, including Don and Elsie Wollheim, Isaac Asimov, Fred Pohl, Damon Knight, Sam Moskowitz and others.  Jack was the photographer at the SF functions that they attended, so he was not in many of the pictures.  Together, they attended three World SF Conventions.  At one SF conference in Philadelphia, Jack and Lottie wrote and performed a humorous skit in honor of Don Wollheim’s retiring. 

Lottie and Jack Robins in 2015.

Lottie celebrated her 103rd birthday last year.  She thought of Jack as her loving husband, encyclopedia, editor and best friend.  When asked about her secret for having lived so long, Lottie would often replay that Jack was wonderful to live with and they had such an interesting life together.

Lottie is survived by her daughter Lohrainne Janell; her son Arthur Robins; three grandchildren (Alisa, Amy and Leila); and, three great-grandchildren (Jordon, Fionah and Jaxon).

(Adapted from an article in First Fandom Annual, 2018, ed. by John L. Coker III and Jon D. Swartz)