Robbin Adair, 67

The Coronado Unified School District has announced the Tuesday death of retired Coronado High School teacher Robbin Adair, 67. Services for the one-time Engish teacher and athletic director will be held at 4 p.m. Saturday at St. Paul's United Methodist Church D Avenue & 7th Street.

Here's the district's announcement:

Coronado mourns the passing of one of our most beloved teachers. Retired CHS instructor and coach Robbin Adair passed away Tuesday in hospice care. He had taken ill recently with heart and other internal complications. Services will be held this Saturday, October 27th at 4:00 PM at St. Paul's United Methodist Church on the corner of D Avenue & 7th Street. 

Coach Adair taught at Coronado High for 40 years. During that time he was an English teacher, athletic director, cheer advisor, class advisor, tennis coach (girls and boys, honored as coach of the year numerous times) and basketball coach.

But above what he did, it was how he did it; Coach Adair touched students and fellow staff in ways that they will never forget.

Here are some memories shared by faculty and former students: 

• God speed Robbin and thank you for the blessing that was you. You will never be replaced.
• When he spoke everyone listened. His insight on life and wise advice were priceless. He was a gentleman in every sense of the word. I will miss you Coach.
• He was truly a Renaissance man who touched so students through, not only his teaching, but through his coaching. He performed in the all-school musicals and had the most beautiful tenor voice. He would sing "Life is a bowl of cherries, even when you're in the pits" on the day of exams.  He always looked for the good in students no matter how challenging they were. 
• I will carry with me for the rest of my life his lessons about life – the kind of lessons that are not in textbooks. He was a class act and CUSD was very lucky to have had a man who dedicated 40 years of his life to successful teaching. 
• Robbin was just as positive, upbeat, and effective at making meaningful connections with his students in his 40th year as we would all hope to be in our first years of teaching.  I always marveled that he was able to be so fresh, relevant, capable, and beloved after four decades at CHS. What an inspiration he was to his students and colleagues! 

To quote one of his favorite books:

“It doesn't matter what you do, he said, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that's like you after you take your hands away. The difference between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching, he said. The lawn-cutter might just as well not have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime.” (Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451)

And Robbin's garden continues to flourish....