Albert Alonzo Robinson (October 21, 1844 – November 7, 1918), sometimes referred to as Albert A. Robinson or A. A. Robinson, was an American

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing ...

who rose through the ranks of the

Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. The railroad was chartered in February 1859 to serve the cities of Atchison, Kansas, Atchison and Top ...

to eventually become the railroad's

vice president A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on t ...

and

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

. After resigning from the Santa Fe, Robinson became president of the Mexican Central Railway.

Youth and education

He was born on October 21, 1844, near South Reading, Vermont. His mother moved the family, after his father's death, to

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

, where Robinson worked as a clerk in his stepfather's store until 1861. When his stepfather became ill and closed the family store, Robinson turned to

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

farming Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

for a few years to support the family. In 1865 he enrolled at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

where one of his older brothers, Stillman W. Robinson, was a faculty member. He graduated there in 1869, and two years later he earned a Master of Science degree. In 1900 he was awarded a

Doctor of Laws A Doctor of Law is a degree in law. The application of the term varies from country to country and includes degrees such as the Doctor of Juridical Science (J.S.D. or S.J.D), Juris Doctor (J.D.), Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), and Legum Doctor (LL. ...

degree.

Railroad career

While studying for his advanced degrees, Robinson worked for the St. Joseph and Denver City Railroad in 1869 and 1870. He began his employment with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway on April 1, 1871. Robinson took on many railroad building challenges for the Santa Fe, and under his guidance, the railroad built nearly 5,000 miles of track, including the connection from

Topeka, Kansas Topeka ( ; Kansa language, Kansa: ; iow, Dópikˀe, script=Latn or ) is the Capital (political), capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas and the County seat, seat of Shawnee County, Kansas, Shawnee County. It is along the Kansas River in the ...

, to

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, and the railroad's expansion into

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

and

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

before he resigned in 1893. In 1893, when the Santa Fe entered receivership, he was the popular choice among the railroad's employees to become president. But it was

Joseph Reinhart Joseph W. Reinhart (1851–1911) was an American businessman who served as the twelfth president of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. He was head of the Santa Fe from December 1893 until August 1894. Biography Early years Joseph W. Rein ...

, whose connections in the financial industry played a more important role, who became the Santa Fe's president. Robinson resigned from the Santa Fe to take the presidency of the Mexican Central Railway instead. This move may have been the best for Robinson after all as the Santa Fe struggled to regain solvency for the next year and as the press placed the blame for the railroad's collapse squarely on Reinhart. He died in Topeka on November 7, 1918.

References

* 1844 births 1918 deaths University of Michigan alumni 19th-century American railroad executives {{US-rail-bio-stub