Martha Whelan Robinson ’80
Martha Whelan Robinson, Connersville, IN, died February 7, 2024, seven years after being diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
Martha “dedicated her life to finding housing for the homeless and the developmentally challenged, and later to expanding literacy education,” her family wrote. She grew up in East Hampton, NY. She was one of 12 children and graduated from East Hampton High School.
After graduating from Saint Michael’s as an American Studies major, she moved in the early 1980s to Chicago, where she worked for various community and social services before founding and serving as director of Deborah’s Place, a homeless shelter for women.
“Martha started this shelter to create a safe place just for women,” according to her husband, the Rev. Eric Robinson. The two were married on July 19, 1986.
Later, Martha “became the executive director of a not-for-profit that helped the developmentally challenged transition from life in state institutions into apartments or group living arrangements,” her family wrote, and as part of that work she was named to the Illinois Commission on Social Services, which advised the governor on policy. “Her work was her life,” her husband said. “She cared for others.”
The couple moved to Indiana, where Mr. Robinson attended seminary. There, upon learning that her three children were dyslexic, as she was, she earned both a master’s degree and a doctorate in school psychology at Ball State University. She became a licensed school psychologist in Indiana and worked in schools in that capacity for 10 years.
She was a member of the American Psychological Association and earned a fellowship in the Orton-Gillingham method of teaching reading, later founding, and serving as director of, the Masonic Learning Center for Children in Indianapolis.
Martha “invented a new and unique linguistic approach to teach reading, which has positively impacted many lives, and is now called the Robinson Reading System,” her family wrote.
She was a co-founder of Fortune Academy, a school for dyslexic children in Indianapolis. After her husband became a Methodist minister, Martha “developed her own ministry in the church and did mission trips to Kenya, inspired by her desire to help children with reading difficulties, and began preparing to become a deacon in the church.” She also taught at the University of Southern Indiana, Ivy Tech Community College, and Butler University.
Despite her ALS diagnosis, she continued to tutor children and adults in the last seven years of her life. “Right up to the end of her life, she would aid her husband with critiquing his sermons and helping him improve them,” her family said. “She also mentored her daughter in the continuation of her work to expand literacy education.”
“Martha never stopped touching lives and serving and helping, despite, at the end, only being able to move her eyes,” her husband said.
“Martha was kind and adventurous,” said her sister Elizabeth Whelan Kotz of Bridgehampton. “She had a big laugh and a good sense of humor. She loved swimming, especially in the ocean, camping, and traveling. She loved her family very much.” She requested that her body be donated to further ALS research.
In addition to her husband, Eric, Martha is survived by three sons, three brothers, five sisters and extended family.