Grover Robinson Obituary

Grover Meredith Robinson, 80, formerly of Spofford, NH and currently of Longmont, Colorado, passed away in the comfort of his home on Wednesday, July 23rd, 2025.

Grover was born on Nov 19, 1944, in Montreal Quebec, Canada, the eldest son of George Meredith and Myra (Davis) Robinson.

Grover moved permanently with his parents to Winchendon, Massachusetts in 1948 at 4 years of age.

Grover attended Murdock Junior Senior High School in Winchendon, Mass, where he played French Horn in the band and was on the competitive swimming team at the Clark Memorial in Winchendon. He graduated from Murdock High School with the class of 1962.

Grover volunteered to serve 3 years in the US Army in the fall of 1962 and served at Fort Rucker, Alabama and also did an active tour of Duty with the 21st Aviation Helicopter Division in Vietnam.

He returned from Vietnam in early 1966, left the US Army with the rank of Private First Class and was determined to find his place in life and to develop a rewarding career. He attended Ward Business Schools in Worcester Mass for 3 years at night to study computer programming, utilizing his Veterans GI Bill benefits.

Grover started his computer career in the spring of 1969 at Peerless Insurance Company in Keene, NH where he was one of the first dozen or so people to become professionally employed as a Computer Programmer/Analyst in Keene, NH. Peerless also had one of the first 2 IBM mainframe computers in Keene.

It was at Peerless Insurance where Grover met the love of his life, Leah Lillian Ranlet in April of 1969.

Grover and Lee were married on Aug 19th, 1972, at the United Church of Christ in Keene, NH. They came home early from their honeymoon on Cape Cod, to move into their first home on Kennedy Drive in Keene. Less than a year later, they were blessed with the birth of twins, Eric Grover Robinson and Jennifer Lee Johnston, now of Longmont Colorado.

During the 70's, Grover was a member of the Keene Jaycees, where he held every elective office and became President in 1975/76, winning multiple State awards for highly effective management, leadership and membership growth. In 1977 he went on to become the State Jaycee VP of Community Action. In 1979 he was Awarded an international JC designation as JC International Senator #28331.

In 1977, Grover became the Manager of Software Development at the Brookstone Co in Peterborough, NH where he led the efforts to develop and install inventory management and sales forecasting software resulting in multiple annual inventory turns and 95+% levels of customer service which greatly enhanced the company's bottom line.

In 1982, Grover became a Naturalized US Citizen and went on to become active in local, state and national political campaigns. Grover took great pride in his American citizenship and newly acquired right to vote.

From 1980 to 1991, Grover was the Director of Information Services for the Holstein Association of America in Brattleboro, VT reporting to the CEO, where he led a team of over 65 manager's and computer technicians. They developed a new online system, which hooked up 100 years of historical production and genetic records of over 100 million dairy cows for Registered Holstein farmers all across the United States. He was also in charge of buying and selling used IBM hardware and software resulting in a famous local bar room deal to sell a used $80,000 IBM Mainframe computer to a now major US Food Distributor located in Keene, NH.

Grover also led a team of technicians and dairy geneticists who developed computer mating software to identify Holstein bulls with the best genetic and physical traits and to make the optimal mating combination for each Registered Holstein cow in the US. Those efforts resulted in the near doubling of the average milk production of the US Registered Holstein population over a ten-plus year period.

In 1987, Grover graduated Magna Cum Laude from Franklin Pierce University in Rindge, NH with majors in both Computer Science and Management. He then went on to study for his MBA at NH University.

From 1992 to 2002, Grover was the Computer Operations Manager for the State of NH at the Concord, NH Data Center. In 2002, Grover contracted throat cancer from the "agent orange" that he had been exposed to while serving in Vietnam. He retired early to focus totally on pursuing long-term medical treatment by the Boston VA Medical Center to survive the cancer.

During their 50 plus years together, Grover and Lee loved to travel and visited nearly every state in the US and many foreign countries, often on cruises. They also visited Alaska, Hawaii and Europe on family vacations. Grover and Leah loved going to car shows in their Corvette together.

In 2018, Grover and Lee moved from Spofford, NH to Longmont, Colorado to retire near their twin children and four Grandchildren.

Grover's surviving relatives include his wife Leah of 53 years, their children Eric (Holly) Robinson and Jennifer (Richard) Johnston of Longmont, Colorado and grandchildren Leah, Lily, Max and Ella. His daughter, Christi (Randy) Cook of Waxhaw, NC and grandchildren Matthew and Piper. His brother Dean (Karen) Robinson of Keene, NH and his predeceased brother Dale Robinson of Winchendon Mass. Also, numerous nieces, nephews and cousins.

The family will hold a Celebration of Life for Grover in July of 2026, and he will be buried at the Massachusetts Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Winchendon, MA.