About Me
Hi. My name is Bill Robinson, and I’ve been a pigeon fancier for most of my life. I’m 63 years old, and I just retired from the U.S. Postal Service. I’ve had pigeons since the young age of five, and I was introduced to them by my grandfather who had a small scale squab business. From the first time I set foot in his loft, I was hooked. Like my grandfather always said “It’s in your blood,” and he was right. In the beginning, I followed his lead and kept Swiss Mondaines and Kings. At that time Sandy Sager formed a 4-H group, and I became very active in it. In my mid-teen years, I found race birds and made the transition to them. I had some success, and right after my 18th birthday I won a 300-mile combine. However, the very next day my hobby was put on the shelf when the President of the U. S. requested me to serve my country. I joined the Navy, and I was attached to the “SEABEES” because of my construction background. I did two tours in Viet Nam for a total of 32 months, and in between tours I had the privilege of teaching some of our most elite fighting men, the “Navy Seals”. I made some good friends within this group, and I still say in touch with Master Chief James Watson. After being separated from the Navy, I married and lived in North Jersey. As luck would have it, the town I lived in had an ordinance against keeping pigeons. So my hobby was limited to feeding the street rats at the post office. As we all know, some things in life don’t work out the way we hoped. My marriage didn’t, and we both moved on. I returned to South Jersey where I grew up. After a short time of single life, I started dating Pat, who became my wife and the mother of our two great sons--Pat and Chris. Shortly after we married we built a house, and not long after that came the animals. I had a large collection of wild water fowl, some chickens, and you guessed it--pigeons. This consisted of a little bit of everything. Not very long after I resumed my love affair with pigeons, I looked up my old friend Sandy Sager. He gave me two pairs of Chinese Owls. I became very active and competitive in the breed, and in a little over ten years I became a Master Breeder. However, I was looking for more and my good friend, George Mahlik, told me to check out American Show Racers. I did this at the 1993 N.Y.B.S., and I was hooked. The first person I meet was Richard Brooks. He spent a lot of time explaining the breed, genetics [my passion] of the breed, and introduced me to the members of the club. Over the years we have become great friends spending many hours on the phone and having great times at shows. He’s shared his knowledge of genetics and his love of the breed with me, and I consider him my “mentor”, THANK YOU RICHARD. Over the years I’ve worked on many color projects, and I have always tried to stay competitive with the standard colors. I’ve posted some of these on this site with numerous other photos. ENJOY.