E. Claiborne Robins; Philanthropist, A.H. Robins CEO

E. Claiborne Robins, 84, who earned millions of dollars in the pharmaceutical industry and gave millions to higher education. Robins, who joined family-owned A.H. Robins Co. in 1933, built it into a publicly held company with revenue of more than $241 million in 1975, the year he retired as chief executive officer. He stayed on as chairman as the company went through a crippling legal battle over the Dalkon Shield. The company was forced to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1985, and Robins retired four years later when the company was purchased by American Home Products Corp. Robins gave $50 million to the University of Richmond (Va.) in 1969, one of the largest private gifts to higher education in history. In 1973, he gave the Medical College of Virginia $3 million to help construct a health professions building, and over the last 10 years gave more than $2 million to a scholarship fund at Virginia Union University. In Richmond on Thursday of cancer.