Willard J. “Jim” Robison Jr.
funeral director and owner, Robison-Bahnmiller Funeral Home & Cremation Services, Saline, Michigan, died September 17, 2023, at age 80. Robison became a skilled drummer, joining with the million sellers Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band Johnny and the Hurricanes, which he toured with after high school. In 1962, the band headlined at the Star Club in Hamburg, Germany, where The Beatles were their opening act. Robison later attended Bowling Green University and Ohio University and graduated from Toledo University with a Bachelor of Science degree. As an undergrad, he worked part time for a local funeral home, where his interest in mortuary science was inspired. But the call of the outdoors was strong and he began graduate courses in landscape architecture at the University of Michigan. Ultimately choosing mortuary science, Robison graduated with high honors from Cincinnati College of Mortuary Science and returned to Michigan, joining Muehlig Chapel in Ann Arbor and beginning a career of more than 50 years as a funeral director. Overlapping his studies, he served in the U.S. Air Force. In 1983, Robison and family relocated to Saline in anticipation of his becoming the next owner of Bahnmiller Funeral Home. Eight months later, the dream was realized with the closing of the sale of the firm and Robison set out to serve the Saline community with an uncanny ability to remember who was related to whom, where they lived and where their family members were buried. Robison is survived by wife Alison, children Emily and Stephen (a funeral director with the firm), and four grandchildren.
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