History of Reading News. Vol.XXIII No.1 (1999:Fall)
by Ken Goodman

My first meeting with Alan Robinson was in the corridors of the East-West center of the University of Hawaii where we were both teaching workshops in a long-ago summer. Not long after that, we met again at the University of Chicago Reading Conference. Alan was an assistant professor there. He was also President of the International Reading Association. Shortly thereafter he moved to Hofstra University and stayed there for the balance of his career, building one of the preeminent graduate programs in reading in the country.

Alan responded to my suggestion for a Psycholinguistics and Reading Committee of IRA by making me the chair. He encouraged me to run for IRA Board (I lost the first time). While he was President, IRA sponsored a series of regional workshops on psycholinguistics and reading featuring Dick Hodges, Dick Venezky, Alan and myself.

Alan Robinson bridged, in his own professional life, the historic changes in the field of reading from skill centered to meaning centered paradigms. He was open to new ideas and encouraged his students to be open and innovative. Alan epitomized what it means to be a gentleman and a scholar. We will miss this gentle scholar.

By Ken Goodman