RIP Robin Hartman

This happened while SportsJournalists.com was down, but I thought people would want to know.
Robin Hartman, a long-time sports information director at Albion College who has covered high school sports for the past five years at The (Fort Wayne, Ind.) News-Sentinel, suffered a stroke while in the office on Sunday, August 13 and passed away the following Saturday. A memorial service was held Saturday.

If you have worked in the midwest in the past 20 years, you have probably crossed paths with Robin at some point. Not only was he the best SID I ever had the honor of working with, he was a great person who really loved high school sports.


Here is the obit that ran in the paper:

J. ROBIN HARTMAN, 52, died Saturday, Aug. 19, 2006, at St. Joseph Hospital. Born Sept. 20, 1953, he was the son of William George and Dorothy Joyce (Watson) Hartman. He was currently the prep-sports editor for the News-Sentinel since 2001. He served as the sports information director at Albion College from 1987 to 2001. He was a pioneer in small-college sports information with one of the first web sites and for using the internet as a source for streaming audio play-by-play. He chaired the Football Gazette All-American committee for three years and served as a voter for two additional years. He assisted the University of Michigan, serving as the official scorer when the Wolverines hosted Big Ten Softball Championship Tournaments. He was inducted into Albion College Athletic Hall of Fame, in 2004. He was a graduate of St. Joseph College, Rensselaer, where he became the news/sports director at WJCK Radio. He then moved to Warsaw where he worked for WRSW-AM/FM as a sports announcer from 1976 to 1984. In 1984, he became the sports editor for the Warsaw Times-Union Newspaper until 1987. Surviving are two brothers, James of Medina, Ohio and Thomas of Chicago, Ill.; uncle and aunt, Jack and Betty Olhoeft of Murrysville, Pa.; and three nieces. Memorial service is 2 p.m. Saturday at St. Paul's Lutheran Church, 1126 S. Barr St. The Rev. Richard Maassel officiating. Arrangements by D.O. McComb & Sons Lakeside Park Funeral Home, 1140 Lake Ave.


I just received this in an e-mail this morning:
A fund in Robin's memory has been established. The gifts will be used to assist Albion College with the purchase of a new public address system at Sprankle-Sprandel Stadium. Please send donations, designated for the Robin Hartman Fund, to the Albion College Communications Office, 611 E. Porter St., Albion, MI 49224.

 

Sounds like a great and talented guy. RIP.

 

Hartman hired a 13-year-old SIU to keep stats at Albion football and basketball games, possibly a "break" into the business, which your protagonist has since squandered. Very good to work with and one of my first mentors.

RIP, indeed.

 

There are a couple hundred guys like this who never get any credit. Nice to see this, although it's a damn shame they don;t get the credit while they're alive.
RIP. Sounds like a good guy.

 

This is sad. I got to know Robin when I was at Albion and working for the college radio station. Went out of his way to help me, didn't roll his eyes like lots of people would at an 18 year old asking stupid questions. My condolences to his loved ones.

 

RIP to Robin. I've heard of his good work.

 

I only worked with Robin for about three months, but I learned from him. He was a charming fellow that could easily bring a smile to your face. His work at Albion was pioneering from what I understand (streaming live radio play-by-play) and he knew every detail about every high school here in the Fort Wayne area.

Good guy. RIP, Rockin' Robin.