ROBIN DOUGLAS

Robin Jane Douglas, died Wednesday, August 21, 2024, at 3:00pm at the age of 61. She had recently undergone a right leg, below the knee, amputation for an infected fracture of her calcaneus, brought on by reneal osteodystrophy, as she was living on dialysis for the past year, due to end stage renal disease. The cause of death was cardiac, and she passed away peacefully, and suddenly, in a rehabilitation facility, witnessed by the attending staff.

Despite her life being shortened by chronic illness Robin was fiercely independent always and never let any illness define her. Her independent and perceptive world view was evident from birth - she was famous for an event at the Neenah YMCA where, on the first day of swimming lessons at age 5 she refused to wear the mandatory swim cap for women since there were boys in the class with longer hair than she had and they were exempt - in her mind clearly a flawed and unfair policy which she would not endorse. She never got in the pool that day (much to her mothers chagrin) but did subsequently learn to swim.

She, like her father, was highly intelligent and amazingly well educated -graduating in the top ten of her high school class which numbered almost 700 freshmen. She played tennis and softball at Neenah High School and was the manager of the mens varsity soccer team in 1980. These years were punctuated by many international family trips in her youth and as a result she shared her fathers wanderlust throughout her life. She did undergraduate schooling at the University of Wisconsin in Madison and then on to England with at least two Masters in Arts/ Philosophy degrees from the University of Cambridge UK , the first in 1986, where she lived upstairs from the famous physicist Stephen Hawking with whom she became friends. He was known to chase Robin around his garden in his motorized wheelchair and there she was known as the “bubbly blonde”. She loved her time in England and college life there, attending May Balls and reportedly being invited to Prince Edwards birthday party - these events all took place in a time long before personal computers and cell phones and she would share stories of her time there with family back home in the US via hand-written letters through the mail.

She was born September 15, 1962, the year the Rolling Stones formed, and she loved rock music - seeing Mick and Keith more than once in concert and blasting Springsteen's Born to Run album on her phonograph (she loved Clarence and his horn…) over and over again.

She LOVED the Green Bay Packers and the fact that we still hold season tickets for the same seats that were occupied by “Douglas Butts” during the ice bowl in 1967.

Her education continued at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville where she completed her law degree in 1991 and then took a job with a firm in Los Angeles where Johnny Carson from the Tonight Show was the entertainment at the group Christmas party. This firm had a branch in Honolulu and during her time employed there, Robin developed a love for the south pacific which she maintained forever and as a result her legal career continued for a time working in the US circuit court on the island of Guam in the south pacific - a period in her life which she would often refer to as her happiest. While on Guam she developed a deep and passionate love for animals - especially those in need given the large number of feral cats and dogs in that area. In typical fashion she followed this call to the highest level - returning to the University of Wisconsin, from where she already held a 1984 bachelor's degree, to attend and complete Veterinary school - graduating with her DVM in 2003.

She remained in Wisconsin from that point forward until her death, living in Madison for 15 years and working at the Green County Humane Society among other places. For the past 7 years she has lived in Neenah in her childhood home providing aid to her aging mother who passed in 2022 and more recently focusing on her own significant health challenges.

Robin loved the Experimental Aircraft Association and its annual fly-in which for many years was the event she looked forward to most eagerly with Christmas running a distant second. There she would actively seek out veterans, especially of World War Two and spend hours in conversation with them regarding details of battle and valor - especially revolving around D-Day and Iwo Jima. As was her style, given that she never married or reproduced, she spent significant resources traveling to military sites of historical interest around the globe such as Omaha beach in Normandy, Leningrad and multiple south pacific destinations such as Iwo Jima, Palau and Tinian. Interestingly, while on Guam she took up scuba diving and became a certified dive instructor - affiliated with a company that specialized in undersea tours for Japanese newlyweds given the proximity to Asia.

Robin was a voracious reader and would often get lost in a book and sometimes stay awake for more than one or two days straight to finish a book of over one thousand pages in a single sitting - her ability to recall fine details of text or remote events was startling. You did not want to play trivial pursuit with this woman.

One of her favorite books was the Titanic narrative “A Night to Remember” which she re-read on the order of 100 times by her own estimation. She would say only half kidding “books are my friends”.

In that vein Robin was a stickler for correct grammar and likely would dissect this very obituary with relish and return it to the author with extensive notes in the margin, punctuation corrections struck with red ink and pithy notes like…BORING!….the demise of correct grammar, spelling and punctuation with the advent of word processors was viewed by her as a sign of the impending end of civilization and who can argue?

Robin burned hot but also was incredibly lovable and charming and loved to talk - her family, when separated by the fates of adult life and wanderlust, would often expect a phone call from her to easily last several hours - she had so much to say.

Two words: Star Trek. She loved everything about it - from watching the original broadcast episodes in the den on Poplar Ct. weekday evenings in the late 1960s after school on a massive old tube TV to the subsequent movies to the books to the conventions - she did it all and could never get enough of the sci-fi wonderland and all of its imaginative possibilities - the answering machine greeting at her house still says “If you are calling from the star ship Enterprise, beam me up!”. She met William Shatner last Winter and brought her own tribble (Trekkies will know).

The original Hawaii Five-0 TV show was also a lifetime favorite - she would often say “book-em Dano!” for no apparent reason…raising her fist in the air.

She was truly one of a kind and can never be replaced but given her larger than life footprint on the Earth will never be forgotten. She had a pithy sense of humor to the last and loved gallows humor in the vein of the TV show MASH or perhaps more (or less) appropriately the uniquely British Humor of the PBS American broadcasts of Monty Python's Flying Circus which began in the mid 1970's - every episode of which she has seen more than once. She would often repeat “I'm not dead yet!” even long before she got truly sick - she found it so funny. Wondering about killer rabbits and the Ministry of Silly Walks, on and on… Python fans will understand…

Most of what she said, especially of late, is not fit for publication here but can be summed up with the fact that she literally wrote “not this one” on her left leg in large capital letters with a sharpie marker on the eve of her right leg surgical amputation 10 days ago…who does that? She did.

My name is Bruce Douglas, her younger brother, and I am in tears as I write this about my only sister as I know that while her tremendous suffering has now come to an end (and for that I give thanks) I will never forget her and will now eternally long for something never to be heard again -that we would start every phone call with “Hello sibling” and being creatures of habit, end with a perfunctory “goodbye sibling- love you”.

And so there it is.

When I received this awful news yesterday from her health care team and realized the gravity of the event, they asked if I had any questions…and the only thing that came to mind then is the same as now…

I simply said, “There is nothing more to say…” Goodbye sibling- love you. Gone but not forgotten.

Robin is survived by her brother, Bruce; Sister-in-law, Anne; and niece and nephew, Stella and Theo. When I asked her if she ever wished she had had children she replied, “Yes but only if they turned out like Stella and Theo!” High praise indeed.

A celebration of life will be had at 4:00 pm Saturday, September 14th at Neenah's Westgor Funeral Home, visitation from 3:00 pm until the service, and a “Tab and Teal” send-off will follow at Cannovas restaurant on Main Street in Neenah.  Robin adored the color Teal, wore clothing almost exclusively that color and consumed nearly lethal doses of the first diet soft drink, Tab, throughout her life…hoarding it by the case when it went out of production in 2021. We will toast to her honor and so feel free to drown the restaurant in the color teal - which she for years simply referred to as “THE color”. Special thanks to nephrologist, Dr. Atif Qureshi MD, in whom Robin had the ultimate trust, as well as Dr. Jacob Seiler, whom Robin referred to as a “Hunk” and in whom she found hope for her future - so much so that she would lie about a phantom foot injury to schedule a visit with this orthopedic surgeon to actually ask him what to do about her completely unrelated cough - now that is testimony to the clinical wizardry and unique compassion of a young physician whom she simply referred to as “Jake”. Our family can never thank you two enough as you never gave up on Robin and as a result, she never gave up on herself. God bless you. Credit to Cambridge buddies Anne Tully, Tim Eisen and Mark Speakman for UK details and more local allies Anita and Tracy for shared love of Robin and her animals. Simon and “Bob Cog” as special friends and listening ears…she loved you all more than you will ever know… Should you feel so inclined - funds to any local animal or military veteran's group in her name would be appropriate but not expected.