Remarks: Steiner Student Residences Dedication
Daniel F. Sullivan— January 24, 2004

 I want to welcome you all to today’s dedication ceremony, especially those members of Robin Steiner’s family who traveled all the way from Minnesota to be with us: Robin’s brother Bruce, Class of 1971, and his son McIvor; and Barbara (“Chi Chi”) Steiner Chew, Robin’s wife until his death in 1993, and their son Frederick. Robin and Chi Chi’s daughter Betsy graduated from St. Lawrence this past May and had hoped to be with us today but could not. In addition, Robin’s mother Peggy was also scheduled to be with us today but, at age 88, is home with a broken hip suffered in a fall from her horse—she is a most active woman, I can tell you. It was Peggy’s magnificent gift, supported wonderfully by Bruce, Chi Chi and Bruce and Robin’s brother Larry, also a St. Lawrence parent, that made this senior townhouse project possible. A warm and heartfelt thanks to the entire Steiner family from all at St. Lawrence.

This occasion today has great personal meaning for me. Robin and I were both members of the St. Lawrence Class of 1965. We played together on St. Lawrence’s first intercollegiate soccer team beginning in the fall of 1962 and became good friends. We reunited when Ann and I moved to Minnesota in 1971. Peggy Steiner hosted several St. Lawrence alumni events at their home, and in the early 1980’s Robin and I teamed up to raise money from corporations for the Minnesota Private College Fund, to which American Linen Supply was a significant contributor. Robin was a true gentleman, a truly wonderful man.

After St. Lawrence Robin had a tour of duty with the U. S. Army in South Korea . While there he helped run an orphan asylum and taught English classes in a small village near his camp. After a year of law school, he joined the family business in 1971. In 1974 he married Chi Chi. They have three children—Andrew, who graduated from Princeton in 2000, in addition to Betsy and Frederick. Beyond his work with the Minnesota Private College Council, Robin was a trustee of the Blake School , and on the boards of the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Humane Society, and the Voyageur Outward Bound School . He is sorely missed by classmates, fellow brothers of Beta Theta Pi, and all who knew him here as a student.

A few years back I visited with Bruce, Chi Chi and Peggy in Minneapolis to ask if they might consider a memorial to Robin here at St. Lawrence. They said they would, but wanted to consult Betsy, who was a student here then. When they asked Betsy what we most needed, she said: “better housing, especially something different from the existing residence halls.” That was it. We had these senior townhouses in mind then, but no clear way to finance them. Peggy and her family solved that problem for us, and that is how we are here today.

These senior townhouses have been an enormous hit with our students, right from the first day, as I’m sure you’re going to hear. Cissy Petty, our Vice President and Dean of Students, will explain why.