In September of 1914, Agnes Roddy Robb began 75 extraordinary years of devotion to the University. After her lifetime of loyal service, Chancellor Ira Heyman her “great spirit and determination” and “fierce loyalty to UC and the Berkeley campus.”
In 1930, Robert Gordon Sproul was the UC President and Miss Robb his legendary administrative assistant. For the next 28 years, “she was his very effective chief of staff,” recalls Professor Garff Wilson ‘31. She exercised immense patience and courtesy. Fiercely protective of President Sproul’s time, she screened every visitor of his with grace and implacable firmness. As the skillful guardian of President Sproul’s door and his schedule, Miss Robb rarely, if ever, made a mistake. This required comprehensive knowledge of the structure of the University; intimate acquaintance with all the institution’s personnel; and wise judgement.
After leaving the president’s office, she served as an original member of the Berkeley fellows and an active trustee of the UC Berkeley Foundation from 1969 to 1977. Her gifts to the International House, Cal Performances, the Bancroft Library, and the Botanical Garden would eventually total more than $700,000, but she insisted on no public acknowledgement of them. According to Wilson, “the University of California will always be in Miss Robb’s debt.”
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From the Bancroft Library: A Memoir by Agnes Roddy Robb