By: Stephanie Prokop
NORTH HANOVER Kind, compassionate, and conscientious these are just a few of the dozens of warm words with which the community remembers Neil Robson.
Mr. Robson, 48, a third generation farmer in the North Hanover area who farmed 1,200 acres of land, died on Sept. 25 of a heart attack.
According to friends, Mr. Robson was a terrific agricultural leader and great philanthropist.
As close friend Peggy Ballister-Howells puts it, "When you’re born, God gives each of us a checklist to complete, but Neil managed to complete so many of these points when he was so very young. He always had time for the other guy."
Ms. Ballister-Howells worked as the recording secretary for the Vegetable Growers Association of New Jersey and also had been the liaison who organized the New Jersey Farm Bureau’s educational sessions. Mr. Robson had been involved in both of these organizations with her, and she was also a close personal friend of the entire Robson family.
What amazed Ms. Ballister-Howells is how philanthropic Mr. Robson was. One example was his involvement in a program called Farmers Against Hunger, she said., where farmers would let groups come into already-picked over fields to take whatever produce they could gather to give to food banks. Mr. Robson, she said, went above and beyond and let the groups come in and pick in fields that were full with crops, and take whatever they could to the hungry.
"That’s really what set him apart," she said, "his integrity and leadership abilities, as well as his gentleness and generosity."
Compassion for the community was also something that was paramount to Mr. Robson. Ms. Ballister-Howells described occasions in which he would work his fields in the middle of the night when the wind was still so that pesticides and other harmful chemicals would not blow in the wind and disturb others.
"I never heard anyone say a bad word about him," said Ms. Ballister-Howells.
When Ronny Lee, who worked with Mr. Robson as director with Vegetable Growers Association of New Jersey, learned of Neil Robson’s death, he said it was, "very unexpected, and a shock to the whole agricultural community."
Mr. Lee recalled one story in particular that defined Mr. Robson’s giving personality:
"Every farmer has growing pains at one time or another," he began, "and you run short, (during some crop seasons) but you don’t want to sell out. So I went to Neil on a longshot, asking him to help me out when I was short on pumpkins, and he did. He brought me enough pumpkins that season for the pick-your-own customers and for my farm stand."
Robson’s Farm Market on Route 537 in Wrightstown was always "brimming with dozens of various crops, all of which Mr. Robson farmed himself," Mr. Lee said. In addition to operating the farmstand in Wrightstown, Mr. Robson also had a farmstand in Vincentown and Columbus.
Peter Furey, executive director of the New Jersey Farm Bureau, also defines Mr. Robson as diverse citizen and farmer in that he had skill not only in the fields but in the business aspect of the industry. He described Mr. Robson’s work with the bureau as having "prolific involvement in county-level agricultural boards, and he was extremely active in everything pertaining to business just below the state level."
Mr. Furey recalled seeing Robson at conventions all around the state.
"His involvement with the bureau was preceded by his family’s involvement in the bureau, since we have been around since 1919."
According to Springfield Mayor Bill Pettit many friends and members of the agricultural community considered him one of their own kin. Mr. Robson’s wife, Jean, also had a important role in the family business, as she runs the greenhouses from which they grew about 10,000 poinsettias each year for Christmas.
Ms. Ballister-Howells said the relationship that Mr. Robson had with his wife was "an amazing relationship due to their involvement in their livelihood together." Both had graduated from Cook College together and married shortly after in 1980. Together they were the proprietors of Robson Farms and Greenhouses in North Hanover and Robson’s Farm Markets in Springfield, Southampton and North Hanover.
Mayor Pettit fondly recalled Mr. Robson’s friendship from a 4-H Club from their childhood, in which, Mayor Pettit said, "Neil was one of the highlights in that club from early on."
Mayor Pettit had worked with Mr. Robson on the Burlington County Agricultural Board. Mr. Robson had been vice chairman for three years, and had established a good rapport with all of the board’s members.
"I enjoyed working with Neil," Mayor Pettit said. "He was coming up due to run in a few months for the role of chairman, and, no doubt he would have been elected to that position."
The outpouring of the community’s compassion certainly was evident by the volume of those who came out to pay Neil Robson their last respects at his wake on Sept. 28.
According to Jim Durr, one of Mr. Robson’s best friends and neighboring farmers, it was, "the largest wake that New Egypt had ever seen, with over 1,100 people in attendance."

