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William Bernard Robertson

He was born January 31, 1933 in Roanoke, Virginia the second child of Lottie Rebecca Roberts Robertson Barnes and Irvin Robertson. He had seven siblings; Faye, Stanley, Patrick, Barry, Jackie, Ellen Marie and Vincent. He attended elementary school at Gainsborough Colored School and Harrison School and graduated from Lucy Addison High School in 1950. During his childhood he sold a variety of newspapers.

He rode the train to Bluefield, West Virginia to attend college at Bluefield State College and earned a bachelors degree in secondary education with specialties in English and social studies in 1954 and another degree in elementary education in 1956.

Robertson married his college sweetheart, Johnnie Early, in 1955 and began his teaching career at Laurel Branch in Wyoming County, WV/

They had two children, Bernice Victoria (b. 1954) and William Allen (b. 1958).

Returning to Roanoke, Robertson taught a year at his alma mater, Lucy Addison High School, then Gilmer Junior High for eight years. He was then persuaded to integrate Lee Junior High, the only black teacher on staff. In 1965 he and a classmate were the first African Americans to earn Master's degrees at Radford College.

His life became a litany of firsts. He was the first black recipient of the "Outstanding Young Educator in the City of Roanoke, the first black member of the Roanoke Jaycees, and the first black candidate for Virginia's House of Delegates . He established a recreation program in Roanoke for the intellectually handicapped which evolved into a dream of a summer camp for that population which Robertson made come true. The fund-raising was a successful apply jelly sales campaign, of all things. Camp Virginia Jaycee opened near Bedford, VA in 1971 and served the disabled for nearly forty years.

In 1970, Robertson became the first administrator ever to serve in the Governor's Office of Virginia. President Nixon appointed him to the President's Committee on Mental Retardation in 1971. The following year, he was appointed by President Nixon to the National Motor Vehicle Safety Advisory Board.

Following that term, he worked at Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University as the Associate Director of Continuing Education. From there, he moved to Washington, D.C. in 1973 and became the city's first Director of Consumer Affairs.