There are certain families whose history becomes intertwined with the history of a community. For the Robinson family, that legacy began with Harry J. Robinson.
Harry: An Idea Worth Chasing
Harry came home to Marietta after serving as a navigator on B-29 bombers in the United States Air Force and enrolled at Marietta College. He graduated magna cum laude and as co-valedictorian of the Class of 1948, then built a career in public accounting, establishing his own firm, “Robinson, Caltrider & Tenney”. In the 1970s, the firm moved into the Riverview building across from the Lafayette Hotel. Through his work there, Harry became the CPA for S. Durward Hoag, the hotel’s owner at the time, and the two came to know one another well. In 1973, Harry purchased the Lafayette Hotel.
Harry’s years at the Lafayette were about much more than owning a hotel. He invested in the building and helped give it new life as a gathering place in downtown Marietta. He built the ballroom, which became a popular destination for community events and hosted a dance club he started that drew roughly 100 couples. The Lafayette became another place where Harry could bring people together and turn an idea into something that would become part of Marietta’s story.
That was Harry. His work was never confined to an office or a business. He was involved in Rotary and Lions Club, supported youth sports and community projects, and seemed to have a standing appointment anywhere in town.
“There was always something going on,” his son, Doug Robinson, recalled. “He was involved in everything.”
In the mid-1970s, one of those involvements would become part of Marietta’s identity. Harry served on the Marietta Bicentennial Commission, and during family trips to Charleston, West Virginia, he and his wife, Mae, took their sons, Jeff and Doug, and daughter-in-law, Diane, to the city’s sternwheel festivals. Harry came home convinced Marietta could do the same, and he set out to make it happen. He began working with Captain Gene Fitch and others to turn the idea into reality.
In 1976, just one week after Charleston’s festival, Marietta held its first Ohio River Sternwheel Festival.
Harry helped get the festival off the ground, even covering the cost of the fireworks through the Lafayette for the first two years while community fundraising efforts took hold. What began as an idea sparked by a family trip soon became one of Marietta’s signature traditions.
Harry had a knack for seeing what Marietta could become and, perhaps more importantly, a willingness to roll up his sleeves and help make it happen.
Doug: Finding His Own Way
Doug grew up watching his father say yes to one community opportunity after another. He saw firsthand the time, relationships and genuine care that went into being part of a place and helping it thrive.
After graduating from Marietta High School, where he was a standout point guard, Doug served in the Navy, and eventually returned home to join his father in the accounting business.
It was during those years that Karen Osborne encouraged Doug to join Marietta Community Foundation’s Board of Directors. He decided to take her advice, beginning what would become a nine-year commitment to the Foundation.
Looking back, Doug considers it one of the best decisions he made. “I had one of the best times of my life on the Foundation Board,” Doug said. “I got to work with a lot of really good people, and I got to watch the Foundation grow.”
The experience gave Doug a place to bring his own perspective and strengths to the work of building a stronger community. And just as Doug had spent years watching Harry invest in the community, his own children were watching him too.
Ryan: Carrying It Forward
Ryan was born in 1976, the same year his grandfather helped bring the first Sternwheel Festival to Marietta. He grew up in Devola before his family moved downtown and graduated from Marietta High School, where he played basketball and soccer. His career eventually took him across the country and around the world, from sailing on oil tankers to working in energy investment banking in New York and Texas.
One of his private equity clients was the financial sponsor of HG Energy, a private Parkersburg-based oil and gas company looking for a CFO. Ryan saw the chance to bring his energy finance experience back to the region, joining the company as CFO in 2017 and eventually becoming a part owner. As HG Energy grew and ultimately sold in 2026, its impact grew with it, creating jobs and supporting a network of local businesses and service providers.
Coming home also gave Ryan the opportunity to invest in the community that had shaped his family. In 2019, he approached Marietta Community Foundation about becoming involved, eventually joining its Board of Directors and taking on a leadership role that felt like a natural continuation of the example set by generations before him.
“My grandfather and father were very influential to me,” Ryan said. “They always reiterated that I should remember where I was from and that I should give back to my community.”
Since then, Ryan and his wife, Katarina, have supported the Foundation in ways that reflect both their family’s legacy and their belief in the power of philanthropy. They established the Harry and Mae Robinson Charitable Fund in honor of Ryan’s grandparents, supporting the Friends of the Foundation Fund, Community Impact Fund and Simple Solutions grants. Most recently, they served as the anchor donor for the Jerry Brock Field Lighting Project, helping expand opportunities for local youth soccer on a field named after Ryan’s former high school soccer coach.
For Ryan and Katarina, investing in the Foundation is an investment in the community’s ability to create meaningful impact today and for generations to come.
What Gets Passed Down
Doug watched Harry invest his time, relationships and energy in Marietta. Ryan watched both his grandfather and father do the same. Along the way, each found their own way to contribute to the place they called home.
That may be the clearest measure of what Harry started: not a formula to follow, but an example to build on. And
