George Robbins, an admitted “okay” tennis player who devoted much of his life to promoting Wheelchair Tennis in Maine, has been honored for his outstanding contribution to New England Tennis.
“George is head and shoulders above other volunteers. He was always there to help,” said Ron Friedman, president of United States Tennis Association (USTA) New England.
“Even though he lived far away on Pemaquid Point, he would show up to help, when others who lived 10 minutes away, were absent,” said Friedman.
Not long ago, at their annual Hall of Fame dinner, the New England Tennis Federation presented Robbins with the 2008 Gardner Ward Chase Memorial Award for his contributions to his sport.
The honor is a welcome tribute to the 83-year-old retired steel company executive whose Maine roots spring from Thomaston where his mother’s relatives captained wooden sailing ships.
As he sits at a simple wooden table gazing out at the fog on Johns Bay, George Robbins fingers his sparse beard and talks about the Army Air Corps, Michigan State University, civil engineering, running the operation that provided limestone for U.S. Steel.
Then he shifts gears and talks about sailing and downhill skiing, and keeping his mouth shut on Saturdays when his four sons cheered for their Alma Mater, University of Michigan, while hiding his true allegiance for their great rival, Michigan State.
Physical problems have ended Robbins’ tennis playing career. Now he is an historic re-enactor for Colonial Pemaquid and is building exquisite wooden boat models.
He has just downsized his sailboat and can’t wait to put her overboard for the summer season.
After retirement, he explains, he went sailing.
His sailing odyssey lasted just one year. He had to do something, he said.
Moving to Maine to repair the Pemaquid cabin that became his home, he became involved in tennis.
Then he opened a scrapbook containing pages of photos of tennis players sitting in wheelchairs.
Since moving back to Maine in 1988, George Robbins turned into a super volunteer in the cause of Wheelchair Tennis. His calling began right after he got out of the service when he was waiting to attend college.
“My mother was a physical therapist and she got me a job at a camp for what we then called “crippled children.” Some were playing tennis from wheelchairs.
“I saw happiness radiate with those kids. When they got together they were happy because they were doing something the other kids could do,” he said.
His summer camp job turned into a passion to help the “crippled children.”
In Maine, the life long tennis player became involved as a volunteer.
When he met tennis pro Mike Mercier, it took little convincing for Mercier to learn to play tennis from a chair and teach it to others.
This meeting paired Robbins and Mercier into a 20-year long career as Wheelchair Tennis advocates and volunteers.
“We had few wheelchair players, so we went to the wheelchair basketball games and talked these great athletes into trying tennis,” he said.
One of his contributions to the sport was the “One-up, One-down,” doubles tennis event, pairing an able-bodied player with a wheelchaired partner.
Robbins even helped expose the sport on the streets of Portland when they provided exhibitions during the town’s Old Port festival.
His volunteer activities impressed other tennis volunteers.
“[It’s] George’s wisdom, [and] his willingness to take on tasks that most people would shun. He is not like the thousands of other tennis players,” said Friedman.
“He took up the flag for adaptive tennis, going so far as to buy his own chair to learn the game from that perspective.”
“George was a super volunteer. He never said no. That says a lot,” said Friedman. “He made thousands of lives better.”
