Robin Gould passed away peacefully at home in Roosevelt, New Jersey on August 10, 2020, with her family by her side. Robin was born in New York City on January 25, 1930, the daughter of Ira Hinsdale and Robin Ridgway Hinsdale. She went to the Brearley School in New York, of which she remained a proud alumna all her life, and then to Wellesley College. After graduating, she worked for Time-Life for a number of years, and then, after her first marriage ended in divorce, with two small children in tow she subsequently made her way first to Princeton, New Jersey and then to New Haven, Connecticut, where she lived for the next twenty years. In 1964 she became Director of Program Development for Community Progress, Inc., a pilot anti-poverty program, where she met Alan Mallach, who later became her lifelong partner and love. By 1971, though, she decided that she needed to find work that would enable her to engage more directly with people, and so, while raising two teenagers as a single mom, went back to school, received a Master of Social Work degree from the University of Connecticut, and became a psychiatric social worker. After working for the Connecticut Mental Health Center in New Haven for a number of years, she moved to Philadelphia to join Alan. She and Alan subsequently moved to Linwood, New Jersey and then to Roosevelt, New Jersey where they have lived since 1983. She worked as a psychotherapist for the Rutgers Community Health Plan, Health Insurance Plan of New Jersey, and Carrier Clinic, and had a small private practice until she retired in 2005.
Robin flung herself with joy into life. She loved experiencing, exploring, and learning new things. She was always ready for a trip, a visit, or a new experience. She and Alan travelled extensively, to Mexico, Israel and above all to Italy, where they lived for a short time in 1989, and where she immersed herself in Bologna’s food markets and storefront pasta “factories”. She loved music from classical to salsa, loved to visit art museums and go to opera, ballet, and chamber music performances, studied Chinese language and calligraphy, and practiced tai chi. While Robin claimed to be an atheist, she was a deeply religious person in her way, who believed in the beauty and holiness of nature and living things and drew her life’s inspiration from both. She was a long-time supporter and board member of the Roosevelt Arts Project, and a regular presence in the audience at RAP events.
She was predeceased by her beloved older sister, Cynthia Imbrie, also of Roosevelt, New Jersey. She is mourned and celebrated by her partner, Alan; her sons, Chris Wolf-Gould and his wife, Carolyn, of Oneonta, New York, Peter Gould and his wife, Mei-Mei, of New Providence, New Jersey; grandchildren, Jesse, Trevor and Robin Wolf-Gould, and Jimmy and Christopher Gould; and many far-flung nieces, nephews and dear friends.
Contributions in her memory can be sent to the Roosevelt Arts Project, PO Box 5, Roosevelt, NJ 08555.
Arrangements are under the direction of Simplicity Funeral and Cremation Services at Glackin Chapel, Hightstown, NJ.