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Dedication ceremony set to name 107 for Robinson

By Lisa Majors-Duff
Robinson Robinson A ceremony to dedicate a portion of N.C. 107 as "Dr. H.F. 'Cotton' Robinson Memorial Highway" will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday, April 23, at Western Carolina University.

N.C. Department of Transportation Secretary Lyndo Tippett will join DOT board member Conrad Burrell of Sylva and other local officials in the dedication ceremony in the Ramsey Center Hospitality Room.

The portion of road to be named for the former WCU chancellor runs from the dual bridge over the Tuckaseigee River near Jack the Dipper to the bridge near East LaPorte.

The ceremony will honor Robinson, who died in 1988 at age 69, for outstanding service to WCU, Jackson County and Western North Carolina.

Jackson County commissioners voted unanimously in June to request the DOT make the designation in Robinson's name. As WCU chancellor from 1974-84, Robinson "...greatly influenced the educational growth of the university and the economic development of Jackson County," they said.

"Dr. Robinson was instrumental in seeking and securing assistance from the N.C. Department of Transportation and funding from the N.C. Legislature for the construction of a new section of N.C. Highway 107 south from Sylva," commissioners said.

For more information about the ceremony, call the N.C. DOT at (919) 733-2522.

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