Russell M. Robinson
- Trustee, 1987–2017
- Chair, 2001–2011
A native of Charlotte, Mr. Robinson grew up across a park from the mansion where James B. Duke made his home in Charlotte. He spent three decades on the Board of Trustees of Mr. Duke’s philanthropic organization. Mr. Robinson is a founding partner of Robinson, Bradshaw & Hinson, one of North Carolina’s largest law firms, and he ranks alongside his wife, Sally, among Charlotte’s most respected civic figures.
Educated at Princeton University and Duke University, Mr. Robinson has long been well-known for his sharp intellect, quick wit and genial sense of humor. He is an authority on North Carolina corporate law and the author of the standard text on the subject. The headline of a cover story in Business North Carolina magazine dubbed him “The Brow” for his trademark bushy eyebrows. “With a mind as sharp as raptor talons, Russell Robinson II is the legal eagle that makes many of the biggest deals fly,” the magazine observed. In the early 1970s, his legal prowess helped the Board of Trustees win an important legal case. With high inflation eating into the returns they gained from Duke Power stock and government bonds, the Trustees sought to modify the Indenture of Trust to gain discretion to invest funds beyond those securities.
When he was elected to the Endowment’s Board of Trustees in 1987, then-Chair Mary D.B.T. Semans noted that he brought to the role “a superb knowledge of legal and business matters, as well as a strong record of involvement in areas of Endowment concern such as education and health care...we welcome his astute guidance and deep concern for people and their needs.”
He served as chair of the Endowment’s Board of Trustees from 2001-2011, succeeding Mrs. Semans in the role. He stepped down from the Board in 2017. He was well known during his tenure on the Board for his encyclopedic knowledge of the Endowment’s legal foundations and history, and for his magisterial oral readings of the Indenture on the anniversaries of its signing.
Beyond the Endowment, his extensive community involvement includes serving on the Duke University Law School Board of Visitors and as chairman of the Board of UNC Charlotte. He and his wife, Sally, received the 2013 John Tyler Caldwell Award For The Humanities and the 2006 Distinguished Alumni Award from Duke University.
“a superb knowledge of legal and business matters, as well as a strong record of involvement in areas of Endowment concern such as education and health care...we welcome his astute guidance and deep concern for people and their needs.”
Mary D.B.T. Semans