Charles W. Robinson

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Charles Wesley Robinson (September 7, 1919 – May 20, 2014) was an American

After further duty in the Pacific at Iwo Jima and Okinawa, in February 1946, Robinson had earned enough points to be discharged from the Navy and left for Palo Alto, California, to enter the Stanford University Business School. He graduated with a business degree through an accelerated program in May 1947.

He died on May 20, 2014, aged 94, in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Timeline

• 1941–45 US Navy Engineering Officer
• 1947–49 Golden State Dairy. Managed the company's manufacturing plants in California. Received several patents for creative, but not necessarily successful ideas, including "Nucaroma"—which packaged the smell of a new car in an aerosol can. Became president of a new startup subsidiary company—Harvestaire Corp.
• 1950 McKinsey & Company. Served as management consultant to Meier & Frank.
• 1951–52 Utah Construction Company. Sent to Panama to set up a timber operation.
• 1952–74 Founder and President of the
  Mariner Eccles, Ed Littlefield and Alan Christensen see photo. Through Robinson's innovative vision, the Marcona company expanded into the shipping industry. In an effort to support the transport of iron ore to Japan, Robinson continued to push for larger ships eventually designing and in 1961 constructing the first Panamax, the largest vessel to navigate the Panama Canal. This 105,000-ton ship received much press coverage at the time. Other innovations included the development of a slurry system (Marconaflo
  ) to transport iron ore from mine into and out of ships in a fluid state and development of the first joint oil/ore carriers.
• 1950–74 Mining/steel operations and port development in
  Al-Jubail (Saudi Arabia) as the location to develop a port to deliver the iron ore and develop Saudi Arabia's first steel mill. Oil was then transported back to Brazil from Saudi Arabia
  in the same ships.
• 1974 Appointed as
  Newsweek Magazine
  (November 3, 1975) referred to Robinson as a 'Maverick' and "A master of statecraft".
• 1976 Appointed as United States Deputy Secretary of State (Number two ranking position in the State Department then headed by Henry Kissinger). Negotiated the US-Soviet grain deal, among other accomplishments.
• 1976 Kuhn, Loeb & Co. Wall Street investment banking firm. Senior Managing Partner.
• 1977 Blyth, Eastman, Dillon. Wall Street investment banking firm. Vice-chairman.
• 1979–87 Founded and was president of ETCO (Energy Transition Corporation) based out of
  Frank G. Zarb
  ).
• 1988–2014. Set up the DynaYacht Company (now CBTF Co.) based in
  San Diego, California. Worked with Alberto Calderon, Bill Burns, Matt Brown and Peter Isler to create a radical new appendage design that uses a canting ballast for righting moment and two foils - one forward and one aft of the keel - for side force and steering functions of the yacht. The prototype had been used on the boat called the US in the America's Cup Race. The Canting Ballast Twin Foil technology (CBTF technology) design won Sailing World
  's "Boat of the Year Award" in 2001.
• 1992–2014. Development of a 265-acre (1.07 km²) ranch near La Cienega, New Mexico.
• 1998–2014. M-Ship Co. Another concept, the 'M-Hull' was originally designed to reduce bow waves to reduce erosion in the canals of
  US Military
  , as well as a recreational 8 ft (2.4 m) sailing Dinghy called the Wahoo. The Wahoo received the Bronze award in the 2003 Industrial Design Excellence Awards competition.

Boards and other organizations

• Trilateral Commission (one of the original members, joining in 1976)
• Brookings Institution
• Arthur D. Little
• North American Institute
• Allen Group (Allen Telecom)
• Northrop Corporation
• Clark Oil, Inc.
• Pan American Airways
• Nike, Inc. (Board of directors since 1977; Chairman of the Finance committee; until 2004)
• Mills College
  (trustee)
• Pacific Basin Economic Council
• Santa Fe Concert Association

Family

Robinson was married since 1957 to Mara (Lindovna) Robinson, who was a founder of the Opera-West Company in

Further reading

Uncharted Seas. Autobiography written by Charles W. Robinson with Don J. Usner

Quotes

“If I knew ahead of time, it wouldn’t be any fun”—Reply in response to a San Francisco Business magazine reporter’s question in 1974 as to what Robinson thought he would accomplish in the job of Under-Secretary of State.

“Management by self-induced crisis”—Robinson’s description of his business style.

"No one who has any self-doubts would ever wear a bow-tie"—Robinson quoted in a New York Times article April 22, 1979 on the returning fashion of bow-ties (Robinson had always worn a bow tie)

External links

• Mr. Robinson manager at M Ship Co.