18
Wednesday, January 20, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
ROBBINS: Engineer will
be guest at science
event January 26
Continued from page 3
Inn at the Seventh Mountain
and Black Butte Ranch.
He was project director in
Portland for the restoration of
Washington Park reservoir.
He was the civil engineer
whose geotechnical skill plot-
ted 500 miles of powerlines
from Medford, Klamath Falls,
Lakeview and Jordan Valley
to Twin Falls, Idaho.
Among his proudest
accomplishments is his dedi-
cation to the reinvigoration of
Pine Mountain Observatory
(operated by the University
of Oregon Department of
Physics), where some of the
world’s best telescopes enrich
the study of the history of the
earth and the universe.
It is a pretty impres-
sive résumé for a man
who describes himself as a
Wyoming “hillbilly sheep-
herder.” However, he was
never able to reach his biggest
life goal.
“I wanted to fly planes so
bad,” Robbins said with a hint
of longing still in his voice.
Born on a homestead
where his father raised horses,
then cattle, on the wild open
lands of the northern prairie,
Robbins’ childhood was as
rich as Western novels. There
were bears, barn dances and
blizzards that took tempera-
tures to minus-50 degrees
with nothing but wood heat to
combat it. Telephones reached
distant neighbors and electric-
ity came from batteries.
When Robbins was 10, his
family became sheep ranchers
after disasters wiped out the
family’s cattle herd.
In 1934, grasshoppers
invaded the Midwest in a
Biblical cloud of destruction,
swallowing up grasslands sec-
tion by section, state by state.
The federal government’s
WPA came to the aid of
ranchers with an insecticide
blend of arsenic, bran mash,
molasses and sawdust to curb
the onslaught.
At the Robbins ranch, the
poisoned grain was stored by
the WPA in a cellar near the
only livestock water source
at a spring-fed beaver dam.
A suspected rogue fisherman
broke into the cellar and left
the door torn loose. Cattle
found the opening when they
came for water and gobbled
the grain before anyone was
aware.
“My father and I spent
days on horseback search-
ing for our cattle,” Robbins
reported, “until one day we
noted a putrid smell.” The
entire herd had died from eat-
ing the treated grain.
“We were left with one
cow and a calf which were
in a fenced paddock at the
house,” Robbins said.
Financially desperate,
his father went to work for
a sheep-ranching neighbor.
He returned home at the end
of the summer with a herd of
200 sheep and a few rams as
half his pay and a wallet filled
with cash as the other half.
The family was obliged to
learn a new form of livelihood
on a severely stretched budget
over the next few years.
The ranch was salvaged
through wool and mutton.
By the age of 13, young
Ken became the ranch’s
sheepherder, living in the
company of his sheep dog and
horse through summers until
he finished high school.
His sister or father rode
out regularly with supplies,
returning the same day to
ranch duties, so his summer
days were solitary.
How does a boy survive
the loneliness of sheepherd-
ing? Robbins diffused lone-
liness by dreaming of flying
airplanes and learning to play
a guitar on afternoons when
the sheep lingered in shade.
He sparkles when he talks
about riding his horse to town
when he was 11 to pick up his
Montgomery Ward guitar at
the post office. It was a gift
from his mother, in trade for
his promise not to smoke until
he was 16.
In the silent high meadow
sheep camps across 15
Call for reservations
541-516-3030
www.lakecreeklodge.com
Camp Sherman
photo by gary miller
A guitar was a good friend in Ken robbins’ youth.
engineering and geology. He
retired as a Navy Lieutenant
Commander after 26 years of
service.
Robbins’ passion for
astronomy began when he
was taking post-graduate
continuing-education geology
classes for his master’s degree
at Portland State University.
Already employed as a civil
engineer, he never missed
guest lectures by the former
director of Pine Mountain
Observatory.
When the astronomer
explained that he was hav-
ing difficulty with his
research because of wobbly,
worn gears on the telescope,
Robbins asked what it would
cost to replace the gears. (The
budget for the observatory
was extremely tight.) Robbins
pulled his checkbook and
wrote a $200 check so the
research could continue.
Thus began a relationship
of 40 years. In 2007, he was
honored as the Friends of
Pine Mountain Observatory
Member of the Year. In 1997,
he and his wife relocated to
Central Oregon to be closer
to the observatory and the
friendships formed there.
In August 2014, Robbins
was present for the unveiling
of Pine Mountain’s futuristic
roboticized telescope, which
is dedicated to him. There
are only four of these in the
world: Spain; Chile; Hawaii;
and Pine Mountain, southeast
of Bend. Robbins financed
the robotic wonder, which
will eventually allow students
in Oregon (or Robbins, from
his home) to remotely observe
and research from their school
computers.
In his log home, he still
does woodworking, building
cabinets and furniture. He
also built the cabinets in the
Pine Mountain Observatory
home that houses the manag-
ing director, Mark Dunaway,
a close personal friend. His
walls are covered with his
photographs and paintings,
including one of the Wyoming
home where he was raised.
Among Robbins’ greatest
desires is the hope to get more
people involved in the Pine
Mountain Observatory.
“Ken quotes poetry
often,” says his close friend,
Kathy Johnson. “He often
cites Longfellow’s Psalm of
Life: Act — act in the living
Present … leaving footprints
in the sands of time … still
Achieving, still pursuing.
Ken wants to be a person who
leaves footprints in the sands
of time.”
Anyone who has an inter-
est in volunteering or learning
more about Pine Mountain
Observatory is welcome to
email martie@uoregon.edu or
pete@uoregon.edu.
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sections and 5,000 acres of
grazing territory, Robbins
honed his knowledge from the
few chords his uncle taught
him on annual visits with the
family. He also learned from
the bands that played at all-
night barn dances, where, he
said with a grin, “There was
lots of food, company and an
ample amount of bourbon.”
In the winter, Robbins
lived as a boarder and worked
for the family that housed
him in the town that had a
high school. In his spare time,
he carved and built model
airplanes.
A 7,400-foot Wyoming ele-
vation wasn’t high enough for
the young, ambitious sheep-
herder. He was determined
to become a pilot. Following
high school years, he joined
the Enlisted Reserve Corp.
“I didn’t want to be a
doughboy, I wanted to fly,”
he reiterated. He picked the
Navy, hoping for Pensacola,
Florida, pilot training. His
poor vision ended that dream
in his first military physical
examination just a few weeks
later.
Undaunted, Robbins
focused on aeronautical engi-
neering or becoming a Navy
officer. Again, limited vision
tweaked his future.
In a long process from
1942 to 1946 that included
short study at the University
of Wyoming, boot camp in
Idaho, and prerequisites for
officer-candidate school dur-
ing his reserve active service,
Ken found opportunity.
“If I can’t get in the front
door, I’ll sneak in a side door,”
was his attitude of optimism.
One of those side doors
opened because Robbins
had taken what he calls “girl
subjects” in high school. His
80-words-a-minute typing
skill landed him an assign-
ment (that he almost rejected)
with an admiral of a new car-
rier squadron.
While still in the reserves,
Robbins studied at the
University of Washington on
the GI Bill. In 1951, he gradu-
ated with degrees in civil
Photo by Kathy Krause
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