It’s not every day that the New York Times includes a reference to the Duke’s Men of Yale, and we have Larry Robbins ‘74 and his storied legal career to thank for that (you can check out Larry’s NYT obituary here). Beyond the impressive stats of arguing 20 cases before the Supreme Court and defending or preparing for testimony high profile clients whose names we all know, Larry leaves behind a loving wife and three sons, and he clearly made a lasting positive impression on his fellow Duke’s Men as well (based on the outpouring of alumni remembrances we’ve received). Larry died on 2 November in Manhattan, joining two fellow Duke’s Men of the 70s we’d already lost this year. But Larry lived long enough to see his first novel—The President’s Lawyer, more on it below—published just a month prior.
As we did for our departed Dan McDermott ’76 and Mick Smyer ’72 in the last Istanbulletin, we wanted to share words from one of Larry’s classmates in the Duke’s Men, Ted Turk ’74. Ted writes:
“I first met Larry (at Hebrew school) when we were in 3rd grade. We attended separate schools until the last couple of years of high school. He was fun, creative, talented and driven. We sometimes played acoustic guitar together. After freshman year at Yale I spoke to him about my experiences in the Duke’s Men. He auditioned and was chosen the next semester, singing first tenor. His creativity was apparent when he produced beautiful arrangements of Simon and Garfunkel’s “America” and the mashup of the Everly Brothers’ “Dream” and “Summer Song,” which we loved to sing. He also arranged the comedic song, “Good Advice,” by Allan Sherman, so everyone could have a solo . I had a FaceTime call with him, Dan [McDermott ’76] and Jamie [Stirn ’74] at least a year ago, and he was doing fairly well. Now he and Dan are no longer with us, but their accomplishments will live on.“
Ted and his 1970 high school classmates from Long Island stayed tight with Larry over the years, and—for anyone interested in special ways to honor Larry—Larry’s wife Leslie shared the following with them:
“Regarding a donation to our favorite nonprofit — it’s not even a close call — in memory of Larry. That nonprofit is Global Forest Generation:
https://www.globalforestgeneration.org
https://www.globalforestgeneration.org/donate
I hope that any classmates contemplating a charitable gift in Larry’s memory will take a couple minutes to read about Global Forest Generation. It’s an environmental nonprofit — uniting local leaders across national borders to bring forest ecosystems back to life. And it’s a nature-based solution to climate change in which Indigenous and remote communities benefit from their reforestation and forest protection efforts. Larry learned about GFG when it was just an idea — Mine. I’m one of GFG’s founders. Larry’s generosity made it possible for GFG to get off the ground. He was over the moon when GFG’s first forest restoration initiative, Acción Andina (through the Andes of South America) won Prince William’s Earthshot Prize. . .“
Another way we might honor and celebrate Larry is to read his book. Something I’ve loved about being a part of the Duke’s Men and Doox is that it affords me opportunities to be around amazingly creative and inspiring people. I didn’t know Larry, but I – and, I would wager, many of you – can relate to his audacious desire to write a compelling story and see it into print. Here’s an email Larry wrote to the DDMA not long after our 70th reunion last fall:
“At the risk of over-littering your inboxes: I haven’t shown up at Doox reunions for years because my voice, mediocre even in its prime, did not survive three years of chemo in my late 50s. I still do lots of music, especially with my middle son, who is a full-time musician (and, if I may be forgiven a father’s pride, an amazing guitarist). But my singing range, never great, is down to about 5 notes. On the other hand, my first novel is coming out from Simon & Schuster next fall. Be on the lookout for “The President’s Lawyer,” just in time for the 2024 election.”
I personally purchased a copy of the book soon after learning of Larry’s death and about its publication. It’s a page-turner courtroom/investigative thriller with a surprise ending I won’t give away, but my favorite part may have been the final words in the book’s acknowledgments. Larry wrote about his wife, Leslie:
She, too, read and reread the book and provided plot ideas, structural suggestions, and painstaking line edits. More fundamentally, she told me, in the midst of the COVID year, that I would never know whether I could write a novel unless I tried. Like every other risk I’ve taken during our forty-three-year marriage, Leslie’s the one who thought it could be overcome. And as always, she was right.
That, my Doox brothers and sisters, is the message I’d like to leave you with as we close out 2024 and face the myriad challenges on our collective near horizons. We may not all be so fortunate as to have a life companion like Leslie by our side, but we ALL have the power of DOOXDOM in our corner. Let’s be an inspiration and a support to one another, to be our best creative and human selves and to never stop striving to achieve the things we dream about.
Dorian Rivers ’96
President, DDMA