Louis Robinson Jr., who as director of the Maryland Industrial Partnerships program at the University of Maryland helped hundreds of businesses throughout the state expand, died of lung cancer Sunday at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. He was 76 and lived in Federal Hill.
Born in Baltimore and raised on Eutaw Place, Mr. Robinson graduated from Polytechnic Institute in 1944, then served in the Army Air Forces during the final days of World War II.
After returning to Baltimore, he earned his bachelor's degree in engineering from the Johns Hopkins University in 1949 and began a career with Koppers Co.
While working for Westinghouse Electric Corp. in the 1960s, Mr. Robinson was instrumental in establishing an inner-city factory in Baltimore that provided training and employment for poor and unskilled workers.
Also during the 1960s, he spent two years on a procurement bid from Westinghouse working in Europe for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
In 1975, he joined the staff of Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa., where he founded the Ben Franklin Business Incubator Center for the state of Pennsylvania. The center was a forerunner of the program he would establish at the University of Maryland, College Park.
In 1987, the Engineering Research Center at the University of Maryland recruited Mr. Robinson to develop an industrial partnership program. In 1990, he was appointed director of the Maryland Industrial Partnerships program, which financed technical research for companies of all sizes throughout Maryland. The program also linked companies to faculty members in the University of Maryland system.
Under his directorship, the program has provided more than $20 million for collaborative research with more than 300 companies, including Bethlehem Steel, Black & Decker, Mack Trucks, Hughes Network Systems and one company that converted crab shells to chitosan for use in oil drilling.
Mr. Robinson had not retired at the time of his death.
Herbert Rabin, director of Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute, formerly the Engineering Research Center at UM, praised Mr. Robinson's contributions.
"He had a good perspective on how one works especially within the boundaries of industry and the university. He helped set the course for the program with its many dimensions and technologies," he said.
"He was an extremely well-liked individual," said Mr. Rabin. "He was a basically quiet, a soft-spoken but a very astute and capable individual who could always see through the complexities of the program."
The former Mount Washington resident had lived in Federal Hill since 1989 and was a member of the board of the Federal Hill Neighborhood Association.
Mr. Robinson, who also maintained a summer home at Fenwick Island, Del., had served eight years as a member of the Town Council.
"Lou cared deeply about quality-of-life issues and education in Federal Hill, but he also spoke frequently and fondly about his years as an activist in Mount Washington and service in Fenwick Island," said James S. Keat, retired assistant managing editor of The Sun and neighborhood association board member.
"He was never satisfied with the conventional wisdom and applied his engineer's questioning mind to the issues we dealt with in this growing neighborhood," said Mr. Keat.
Mr. Robinson was a member of the Baltimore Hebrew Congregation and was a founder of Bat Yam Congregation in Berlin.
Services were held Wednesday.
He is survived by his wife of 50 years, the former Marlyn Greenberg; a son, David A. Robinson of Potomac; two daughters, Lynn Pearl Robinson of Philadelphia and Joan Marie Summers of Doylestown, Pa.; and five grandchildren.