PROVIDENCE – Arthur S. Robbins, a local business leader who co-founded the Providence Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau and served four decades on HopeHealth’s board of directors, has died.
Robbins, 91, died Tuesday in White Plains, N.Y., according to his obituary on the Cranston-based Shalom Memorial Chapel’s website.
According to his Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame profile, Robbins – a 2016 inductee – was born in Worcester, Mass., in 1932 and moved to Woonsocket in 1959 to work with his father in the manufacturing industry before becoming a real estate developer. Two years later, Robbins, according to the hall of fame, and a partner built the Warwick Motor Inn – later becoming the Radisson Inn – taking advantage of the opportunity for hotel development near the then-new Rhode Island T.F. Green International Airport, known as the Theodore Francis Green State Airport at the time.
Robbins built several other hotels in the area, according to the hall of fame. Among them were the Providence Marriott Downtown in 1974, the Newport Marriott in 1987 and the Providence Courtyard Marriott in 1999. In 1976, Robbins and then-Providence Mayor Vincent A. "Buddy" Cianci Jr. co-founded the Greater Providence Convention & Visitors Bureau, with Robbins becoming its inaugural president. The new bureau was formed three years after the opening of the city’s 14,000-seat downtown arena, the Providence Civic Center, now known as the Amica Mutual Pavilion.
Two decades later, Robbins co-founded the Greater Providence Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau – now PWCVB – which handles bookings of several annual events within the state. Thus far, the PWCVB has
secured 14 sports events in the first three months of 2024, which could bring in close to $12 million in direct spending, 15,000 hotel room nights booked and 61,800 attendees to Providence and Warwick.
Robbins also served in multiple roles within the community, including founding the Rhode Island Holocaust Museum and on boards for the Jewish Federation of Rhode Island and the Providence Hebrew Day School. Robbins also served on HopeHealth’s board of directors for 41 years and was named chair emeritus in 2022.
In his time on the HopeHealth board, Robbins led the fundraising campaigns that built HopeHealth’s first inpatient unit, the Hulitar Hospice Center, which opened in 1993, and the current Hulitar Hospice Center on North Main Street in Providence. The current Hulitar Center, opened in 2010, is the only freestanding inpatient hospice facility in the state, HopeHealth says.
When Robbins
received the New England Association for Healthcare Philanthropy’s 2019 Distinguished Service to Philanthropy Award, he told Providence Business News that there was a demand for a place where patients could come if their spouse or family couldn’t take care of them at home, hence the need for an inpatient hospice facility.
“The board decided to explore the possibility of establishing a unit in an existing health care facility,” Robbins said at the time. “I was having a conversation with the president of [the] Elmhurst skilled nursing facility on Smith Hill and one thing led to another, and he was able to allocate 10 rooms for us. And then we formed a committee to raise the funds necessary to establish it.”
Robbins’ services will be held Thursday at 1 p.m. at the Temple Emanu-El at 99 Taft Ave. in Providence. In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to either
HopeHealth or the Rhode Island 9/11 Wall of Hope.
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.
