Page 49 - BusinessWest July 10, 2023

A Legacy of Caring, Getting Involved
Dora D. Robinson Remembered for Her Leadership, Passion
BY GEORGE O’BRIEN
[email protected]
“Dora started her life in Elmira, New York, but Springfield was her heart and soul.”
It’s been more than 30 years since the incident just outside the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center in Springfield, but Nate Johnson says he won’t ever forget what happened that
Halloween afternoon.
Or the woman who committed what he described not as an act
of kindness, but rather as “heroism.”
A group of teenagers had gathered outside the MLK Center, he
recalled, and a fight broke out among them — a “real fight.”
He was in the middle of it, he said, adding that, from seemingly
out of nowhere, Dora D. Robinson, the director at the center, grabbed him and pulled him out of the fracas.
To this day, he doesn’t know why she picked him from among all the others. He’s just grateful she did, because that was simply the beginning of her influence on his life.
“She’s my superhero that came to rescue me,” he said, making a point to use the present tense, adding that Robinson, who passed away last month at age 71, essentially “adopted” him at that point and became a mother figure, mentor, inspiration, and someone who helped open doors and compel him to walk through them.
Opening doors and guiding people through them ... that might be a concise yet effective way to at least start to sum up
a remarkable life and career in public service that included a lengthy stint at the MLK Center, a tenure as president and CEO of the United Way of Pioneer Valley (UWPV), and many other leadership roles.
But her passion for serving the community, creating
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