Robin Lillibridge, Jr. was born in Granite City, Illinois in 1924 to Robin and Edith Spence Lillibridge. His mother was a stay-at-home mom and his father was a carpenter at the Granite City Steel Mill. When he was growing up he lived in a two room house with no electricity using kerosene lamps for light and a two burner kerosene stove to prepare meals. When Robin left Granite City Community High School in 1941 he lacked a single credit to graduate but he had a fascination with the sea so when Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7, 1941 he decided to join the Navy. He attended torpedo school at Great Lakes Training School in Chicago and then advanced torpedo school in San Diego. After graduation he was assigned to destroyer service aboard the USS Brush, DD-745, where he manned the 20-millimeter anti-aircraft guns and maintained the torpedoes. Joining the Brush in Hawaii he began two years of non-stop sea duty, leaving the ship only once in that time. The Brush served in several important operations during WWII, including the Leyte operation, the invasion of Iwo Jima, and the Okinawa operation earning five battle stars. Interestingly, in spite of seeing a great deal of action, including Kamikaze attacks while on picket duty near Okinawa, the Brush suffered fewer than ten casualties. After the war, the ship sailed back to San Diego and Robin mustered out traveling immediately back to Granite City. After coming home, he went to Granite City Community High School to obtain his High School Certificate and then to the Missouri school of Mines and Metallurgy where he graduated in 1951 with a degree in Civil Engineering. During his career he served in Texas, California, Kentucky, Panama, Columbia, Peru, France, Italy, Romania and Turkey. He married his wife, Jean Rohlick in 1970 and between them they have five children, five grandchildren and one great grandchild.