During the height of violent campus protests in the late 1960s, Robert M. Levison was determined to guard Bowman Alumni House, now the Stanford Humanities Center. With several other volunteers, Levison camped out in Bowman overnight to protect the building from vandalism.
“That’s the kind of person he was—always willing to stand up for the school,” recalls former Stanford Alumni Association president Bill Stone, ’67, MBA ’69.
An insurance executive and a former chair of the SAA board of directors, Levison died of cancer on February 20 at his home in Atherton. He was 77.
The son of Robert M. Levison Sr., ’21, a founding member of the Stanford Associates, Robert Jr. grew up with his siblings around campus, says his twin sister, Ruth Halperin, ’47, a former member of the Stanford Board of Trustees. “The first song we ever knew was ‘Come Join the Band.’” After attending Lowell High School in San Francisco, Levison took a break from his collegiate career to serve in the Navy during World War II. When he returned, Halperin sent her brother on a blind date with Roble Hall dormmate Anne Lehmann, ’50. The couple married in 1949.
After graduation, Levison joined the family insurance brokerage firm, Levison Brothers, which became Dinner Levison. The company was sold to Transamerica, where Levison worked until his 1997 retirement.
From to 2000 to 2004, Levison served as the president of the board of Hillel at Stanford, and was on the building committee during the group’s move from its Old Union location to the new Ziff Center for Jewish Life. “He was a standout volunteer in all the expected ways, but beyond that, he treated the creation of the Ziff Center as if it were his own home,” says Adina Danzig, executive director of Hillel at Stanford. “Being able to create a physical home to help build community for students here was very meaningful to him.”
Levison also volunteered extensively with Bay Area Jewish community groups. “He was always there for anyone who needed him,” says Halperin. “I don’t often hear men say this, but whenever they talk to me about Robert, they say, ‘I love that man.’ I hear it over and over again.”
He is survived by his wife; two sons, James and David, MBA ’88; two daughters, Joan, ’75, and Marta; nine grandchildren; Halperin and another sister, Barbara Napolitano, ’50.
