Since retiring from Merck-Medco in 1998, Dr. Ira Charles Robinson has practiced as a part-time pharmacist at Walgreen's and has been a diabetes educator, author and consultant in disease-state self-management.
Dr. Robinson is a pharmacy graduate of Florida A&M University (FAMU). He received his Ph.D. in pharmacy at the University of Florida (UF) in 1966, and he became the first African American to be awarded the terminal degree in any discipline at the university. He also was the first African American admitted to the UF College of Pharmacy for either undergraduate or graduate studies.
Dr. Robinson has worked as an international health consultant with a variety of federal agencies, the World Bank and private firms in Africa, the Caribbean and the Middle East.
A former dean and professor of pharmacy at both FAMU and Howard University colleges of pharmacy, Dr. Robinson also was the first black Ph.D. senior research scientist, research project leader and technical assistant to the vice president for research at Pfizer, Inc. He is the author of a patent for a novel pharmaceutical technology used for producing sustained-release tablets and capsules.
Dr. Robinson became the youngest pharmacy dean in the country in 1969 at the age of 28. While at FAMU, he founded the National Pharmaceutical Foundation in 1972, serving as its executive director or president for 17 years. He also is currently a member of Sigma Xi Honorary Scientific Society, Rho Chi National Pharmacy Honor Society and
the American Pharmacists Association.
Dr. Robinson is married and the father of four health care professionals, two of whom are physicians and three of whom are registered pharmacists. His wife, Clarice James, is a former home economics teacher. They have resided in the Tampa Bay, Florida, area for 17 years.
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