Hartford Business Journal

8 Hartford Business Journal • October 6, 2014 www.HartfordBusiness.com L i f e t i m e A c h i e v e m e n t A w A r d s 2 0 1 4 roBinSon: A true rags to riches story By Stan Simpson Special to the Hartford Business Journal c urtis Darrow Robinson arrived in Hartford in the back of a Greyhound bus with little more than $1 in his pock- et and the clothes on his back. It was the summer of 1958. He was 16, homeless, hungry and in a hurry. Robinson was fleeing Birmingham, Ala., where emotions got the best of him one day. He made the mistake that would have gotten most black kids killed in the old South. Young Robinson punched a white man; his boss at the gas station wrongfully accused him of stealing tools. When Robin- son told the boss he was not a thief, the boss took the comment as insubordination and slapped Robinson hard across the face. Fearing that the Ku Klux Klan would not take kindly to the dust up with his boss, Robinson's mother put him on the bus with some bologna sandwiches, $56 in bus fare and a small bag with a change of clothes. He was heading to Boston — or so he thought. On the journey, there were stops in Atlanta, Baltimore and New York. At each location Robinson saw things that he'd never imagined. Blacks and whites were talking to each other in restaurants and transport reception areas. Black people even had the audacity to sit in the front of the bus. When the bus arrived at its next stop at the corner of Asylum Street and Union Station in Hartford, Robinson thought he was in Boston. It turned into a most fortuitous miscalculation. With no place to stay, he slept on a bench at Hartford's Bushnell Park, across from a newly renovated Shoreham Hotel. His first job was as a dishwasher at the Shoreham. At one point, Robinson was working three jobs a day, saving his dollars and sending some home to mom, who was raising three sons and a daughter in Alabama. At 22, Robinson purchased a bodega, which he turned into a successful pizza and beer joint called Curtis' Little Pub. Income was also gener- ated from rental apartments above the building. The pub was so profitable that almost 20 years after he slept on that park bench, the young man with nothing more than $1 in his pocket was able to buy that hotel across the street. Robinson turned the old Shoreham into an upscale nightclub called The Staircase Supper Lounge. The Staircase became a haven for Greater Hartford's black middle class and well-to-do — and it made Robinson rich. In 1983, he sold the nightclub, profiting a couple million dollars. Today, Robinson is owner and president of C&R Devel- opment Company. A self-described serial entrepreneur, with holdings that include real estate, parking garages and airport gift shops, he is recognized as one of Connecticut's most suc- cessful businessmen and a prolific philanthropist. His donation of $1 million launched the Curtis D. Robin- son Men's Health Institute at St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center in 2010. The facility provides early diagnosis and free surgery to uninsured men diagnosed with prostate cancer. Dozens of lives have been saved. "I don't care how big your bank account or how big your home, or how big your car, your grave is the same size,'' said Robinson, who turns 73 in September. "So, you have to be humble and you have to give back and help the least among us. At the end of the day, God is not going to ask us how much money we made. He's going to ask what did you do with the gift that I gave you?'' Robinson and his second wife, Sheila, have been married for 35 years and together have six children. "I never forgot that I was poor,'' Robinson said. "And I never forgot that some people just need a little helping hand. I don't think there's any feeling in the world quite like when a man looks you in the eye and says thank you for giving me my life back." In July, St. Francis announced the merging of Robinson's health institute with St. Francis Care for Health Equity . The new Curtis D. Robinson Center for Health Equity will address dis- parities in health care and make sure such things such as race, gender, education and income don't influence quality of care. "Curtis D. Robinson stands as a powerful example of how business can change lives in our community,'' said Marcus M. McKinney, a vice president at St. Francis Care. "He offers vision and inspiration, and a determination to make a differ- ence. Lives have been saved because he insists on the best care for everyone. He breathes mission. And one can't help but link arm to arm with his example. Our communities need to see people like Curtis to witness the soul of business." P H O T O | S T e v e L a S c H e v e r

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