Piloting 'Harry Potter'

D ick Robinson '54 keeps the presses running for some big name writers, including J.K. Rowling, creator of the sensational Harry Potter series; R.L. Stine, author of the Goosebumps series (also a FOX television show); and Norman Bridwell, father of Clifford the Big Red Dog. Books by these authors have in total sold 300 million copies, and Robinson credits much of his success in the publishing world to his fondness for writing and his experience as a classroom teacher. "Teaching is the most effective way to create strong future lives," says Robinson. "The effect of teachers like George Bennett or Henry Brigdon continues to change society even now-fifty years later."

As chairman, president, and CEO of children's publisher Scholastic Inc., Robinson has overseen the publication of these and many thousands of other books and magazines. Under his leadership, Scholastic has become the world's leading publisher and distributor of children's books and has developed in-school distribution systems unmatched in the industry; it is also a major provider of literacy programs, including textbooks and technology. Scholastic has three major business divisions at Scholastic, Inc.: children's publishing, children's education, and media and entertainment. The company has outposts in seven countries, including Mexico, India, and Hong Kong, and administers the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. Add that to more Harry Potter books in the works, and it's clear that Robinson is at the helm of a kid-powered juggernaut.

Robinson knows his work. Like so many Exonians before and after him, he wanted to be a writer. He didn't subsist on fantasy: he wrote and wrote and wrote. And in the manner of aspiring writers, he sought inspiration in the material world, in part by working in rail yards and lumber mills during a college sabbatical. After college he studied literature at Cambridge, and then took a job teaching English in a Chicago suburb. "I thought it would give me time to write," he says of teaching. After two years of teaching 11th graders at Evanston Township High School, he joined Scholastic as a magazine editor and was subsequently swept into the executive ranks.

"My current job doesn't make much use of my writing skills," he says. This may be for the best, because Scholastic needs the full attention of its management. To support the children's publishing franchises the company has created, Robinson has also directed Scholastic's expansion into television, film, video, technology, and consumer products, and launched the Scholastic Productions programming and licensing unit in 1979.

Scholastic

He returned to college and graduated in 1959, Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude, with highest honors in English, and then spent a year in England studying at Cambridge. He then accepted the teaching job in Evanston, which, as he had hoped, gave him time to write.

page 1 | page 2