In the week since losing their son Adam, former Wilton residents Judy and Ted Robinson have heard from people who knew and loved him in different places and at different points in his life. Again and again, those people have told them the same thing: Adam was their best friend.
Some were close friends his parents knew well. Others were people they had never met.
“You never want this to happen to your kid, but we’re learning how broad his reach was,” Judy said. “And there’s so many more people than we even imagined that he’s impacted.”
This Thursday, Nov. 12, Wilton will offer a place for some of those recollections to be shared. A remembrance gathering will take place at 5:30 p.m. at Zion’s Hill United Methodist Church (470 Danbury Rd.). Friends of the family, anyone who knew Adam and anyone wishing to pay their respects, share tributes or support the family are welcome. Judy and Ted will attend remotely via livestream.
Adam, 45, his wife, Helen Sharp, 40, and their children, Emma, 4, and Charlie, 2, died Nov. 1 when the private jet carrying them from Austin, TX, to the Bahamas crashed near Palm Beach, FL. Also killed were their friends Rachael Reed and Charmi Fehr; Anita Maria Cetina, who was the family’s nanny; and pilot Jeffrey Gregory and co-pilot Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash.
Judy’s friends and colleagues are organizing the memorial event, and they hope Wilton residents who knew Judy through her years selling real estate at Realty Seven and Berkshire Hathaway will attend to remember her son and his family. They said it’s also an opportunity for anyone who knew Adam as a boy to recall the friendships and experiences that began here, as well as anyone who would like to pay tribute to Adam and his family.
The Robinsons lived in Wilton from 1987 to 1992. Adam attended first through fifth grade in Wilton schools during those five years, until Ted’s work took the family back to Houston. Judy and Ted later moved back to Wilton when Adam was in college at Rice University.
Their first Wilton home, on nearly three acres on Wilton Woods Rd., opened up a new world for Adam and his older brother, Anthony. Their Houston home had been on a golf course, where the land was flat and the houses stood in rows. In Wilton, there were woods to explore, including the nearby Quarry Head Park, and whizzing down a zip line that Ted installed over the creek at the back of their property.
Judy recalled how Adam loved skating on Kent Pond in the winters, and among his other activities, he participated in Cub Scouts and sports, and also swam with the Wilton Wahoos.
“They had so much fun,” Judy said.
That childhood delight in exploring remained part of him as he grew older, according to his mother. He traveled widely, sometimes on his own and often with others.
Music was another love that took root in Wilton for Adam. He was first introduced to playing an instrument when he chose to play the cello in the Cider Mill School orchestra and later took private lessons. Adam enjoyed it so much he got involved with the Norwalk Youth Orchestra.
“Moving up to Wilton, I thought it was fantastic that they were [exposed to] the fine arts, where the kids could play musical instruments,” Ted said. “Finding that in the schools in Wilton was just unbelievable. For them to have that experience at the younger age was remarkable.”
That love continued to show itself in his adult life.
“Music was still so special to him, even today. I mean, that was just a real love of his. He loved to sing, play the guitar,” Judy recalled, even if Adam had moved on from his first instrument of choice.
“We do still have the cello,” she said. “We just loved the cello.”
Adam went on to graduate from Rice and build a career as a technology entrepreneur, founding Retention.com and RB2B after co-founding Robly. He loved his work, his parents said, but what he loved even more was helping others find their own way on the path to the same kind of success he had, sharing through podcasts, speaking at conferences and one-on-one what he had learned about building a business.
It seemed Adam found joy in the generosity. Judy remembered seeing one of his many appearances and watching an exchange between Adam and his competitor.
“His competitor was saying to him, ‘Hey, man, I’m your competition.’ And Adam said, ‘I don’t care. I want to help you’. This is who he was,” she recalled.
Even through the tragedy, Judy and Ted have heard from countless people how much their son made a difference for them.
“He was such a caring person, and he helped so many people,” Judy said. “We knew this, but it’s times a million now that he’s gone.”
“It seems like everybody we talk to says, ‘Oh, Adam was my best friend.’ How can a person have that many best friends?” his father, Ted, marvels. Judy echoed the experience. “Literally, I’m not making this up, we have had 50 or up to 100 people tell us that he was their best friend.”
His parents described a son who loved his work, his community and the life he and Helen had built with their children. They said he had lived life with so much joy and positivity.
“They had everything they could have ever dreamed of having. He loved his job. He loved the businesses he built, he loved where he worked. He loved the people he worked with. He loved the people in that community, and he had everything,” Ted said, adding, “And [Adam], he just, he said, ‘I don’t know what I’ve ever done to deserve all this.’ He was so thankful, and they were all always smiling.”
Since January, Adam and Helen had been living in Aspen, CO, and that’s where they would have celebrated Adam’s 46th birthday on Tuesday at a party Helen had planned for that evening. Their Aspen friends asked Ted and Judy for permission to still hold the party but make it a celebration of life instead.
They had recently shared other happy family milestones. This past summer, Judy and Ted celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary by taking their children and grandchildren on an Alaska cruise — 15 family members in all.
They had also just gathered at the wedding of one of the Robinsons’ other grandchildren, on Oct. 10. Emma was the flower girl and Charlie had been the ring bearer. The family photograph Judy shared with GOOD Morning Wilton was taken at that wedding.
Hearing from so many how their son was beloved has brought them some solace.
“It’s comforting. We’d rather have him back, but it’s very comforting to know that people love him so much. Our hearts are breaking, but he was just such a such a sweetheart, a special guy,” Judy said.
The family is considering ways to carry Adam’s generosity forward and honor him, Helen, Emma and Charlie. Judy said a larger celebration of life is planned in Austin, tentatively in late January, with details still being arranged.
“We just we haven’t decided on something, but we do want to try to carry forward what he would have wanted,” Judy said.
