
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, July 7, 1995                   TAG: 9507070083
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                 LENGTH: Medium

PHILANTHROPIST AND DRUG MAKER ROBINS DIES AT 84

E. Claiborne Robins, who earned millions in the pharmaceutical industry and gave millions to higher education, died Thursday after a brief illness.

He was 84 and had pancreatic cancer.

In 1933, Robins joined A.H. Robins Co., a company founded by his grandfather. He built it into a publicly held company with revenue of more than $241 million in 1975, the year he retired as chief executive officer.

He stayed on as chairman of the company as it went through a crippling legal battle over the Dalkon Shield, an intrauterine birth-control device. The company was forced to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1985, and Robins retired four years later when the company was purchased by American Home Products Corp.

Robins and his wife, Lora, gave $50 million to the University of Richmond in 1969, one of the largest private gifts to higher education in history.

Twenty-five years later, the trustee emeritus said he still wasn't sure why he had chosen his alma mater, but said it had paid off better than he expected.

``I felt it was a good school with a firm foundation and had such great potential,'' he said in 1994 interview. ``I felt like it would make a dramatic difference, and it did, it turns out, far beyond what I had envisioned.''

Dr. George M. Modlin, president of the University of Richmond in 1969, said the gift helped transform the university from good to exceptional.

``It was their objective that the University of Richmond become the outstanding private university of its category in our region,'' Modlin said. ``Although his death is a sad personal loss, it is gratifying to know that Claiborne lived to see his dream become a reality.''

Robins objected when the school considered changing its name to Robins University, saying he thought that would make others feel less inclined to support it, but allowed the business school to be named for him.

The Robinses' philanthropy also benefited other Richmond universities. In 1973, they gave the Medical College of Virginia $3 million for a health professions building, and over the last 10 years they gave more than $2 million to a scholarship fund at Virginia Union University.

by CNB