Health Problems Hinder Fairfield’s Mayor-Elect Robinson
Getting elected was the easy part. For Melford “Bud” Robinson, realizing his goal of becoming Fairfield’s new mayor now hinges on his health.
Robinson, who was elected mayor of the small farming town south of the Spokane Valley on Nov. 4 by a vote of 131-0, has never been sworn in. Just three weeks after winning the election, doctors told the 73-year-old ex-Marine he needed immediate heart surgery. During surgery, he suffered a minor stroke. He’s since struggled to overcome lingering kidney infections.
Despite his sudden health problems, Robinson’s goal is to take over as mayor sometime next month. But he admits, he doesn’t know if his body will allow it.
“I have a little paralysis on the left side,” Robinson said. “But I’m improving quite a bit.
“Fairfield has to have a mayor,” he said. “I just didn’t know this stroke thing was going to hit me.”
Robinson moved to Fairfield as a child, back when it had just a couple hundred residents. He’s watched the town, located south of Rockford on Highway 27, grow to its current population of about 700.
He spent 42 years working at Inland Empire Peagrowers, and served more than two decades on Fairfield’s city council. He’s known for his work in getting several crumbling city roads repaved, including Good Samaritan Road, which leads to Fairfield’s Good Samaritan Center nursing home.
He’s also known for his quiet, forthright manner.
Robinson decided to run for the mayoral position after then-Mayor Harry Gibbons decided it was time to step down and pursue some other interests. Gibbons has stayed on as acting mayor while Robinson is in recovery.
Despite Robinson’s optimism, his family admits, they don’t know when he’ll be well enough to take over his desired duties.
“This hit him suddenly,” said his wife, Marjorie Robinson, who never anticipated his need for an immediate quadruple bypass, and three additional partial bypasses.
“He wasn’t a couch potato,” she said.
In fact, Robinson had been exercising regularly, primarily so he would stay healthy.
The mayor-elect has spent much of the last three months in the hospital or at St. Luke’s Extended Care Center in Spokane. He gets about five or six visitors a day.
“If somebody gets sick in Fairfield, everybody knows,” Marjorie Robinson said.
She hopes to bring her husband home this week, where he’ll continue his therapy and recovery.
She also hopes to see him heading out the door for city council meetings soon.
“He’s disgusted (with being sick),” his wife said. “He wanted to be mayor.”
, DataTimes