William R. “Bill” Robbins, a 95 year old longtime Trenton businessman, passed away peacefully in his sleep at his home on January 3, 2012.
A celebration of life is scheduled for 1:30 p.m., Saturday, January 7, 2012 at the First Christian Church in Trenton.  A visitation is scheduled for 5 to 7 Friday evening at the church.  Open visitation will start at noon Thursday at Whitaker Eads Funeral Home in Trenton.  Memorials are suggested to North Central Missouri College and the First Christian Church.
Mr. Robbins was born May 30, 1916 on the farm northwest of Trenton, which has been in the family since the late 1800s.  He graduated from Trenton High School, Trenton Junior College and the University of Missouri, where he was a member of Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity and Q.E.B.H. senior honor society.  Following college he was employed by the Federal Land Bank and U.S. Department of Agriculture in St. Louis and Chicago.
In 1942 he enlisted in the Marine Corps and was in the Pacific theater, including the Okinawa invasion on Easter morning of 1945.  He was discharged as a captain at the end of World War II and was a member of the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars.
He was married May 4, 1950 in Columbia, MO to Marilyn Henderson of Monroe City, MO, who survives.
After 12 years as an official with an insurance company in Columbia, MO he was of Farmers Mutual Insurance Company of Grundy County.  He was president of the Missouri Association of Mutual Insurance Companies in 1978 and received that association’s Hall of Fame award.  He also served as president of the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies Council of Editors.  In 1995 he compiled and published a 100-year history of Farmers Mutual Insurance Company of Grundy County.
He was a deacon, elder and board chairman of the First Christian Church of Trenton and active in construction of the present church building.
A life member of the University of Missouri Alumni Association and former member of the association’s national board of directors, he was also a member of the advisory committee for the University’s Thompson Farm west of Spickard for 16 years.
He was a director of Trenton National Mercantile (now U.S.) Bank for 22 years and served on boards of Trenton Area Chamber of Commerce and Grundy County Industrial Development Corporation.
Politically active most of his adult life, he was chairman of the Grundy County Republican Central Committee for 12 years and a member of the State Republican Committee.  He was also appointed to a committee on reorganization of state government by Gov. Kit Bond in 1972.
He belonged to York and Scottish Rites of the Masonic Lodge and had headed all Trenton units of the fraternity.  He held numerous state and national Masonic offices and attended Masonic events in Europe and the Middle East in official capacities.  In 1996 he wrote and published a history of Trenton Masonic Lodge covering its third half century, 1950 to 2000, as a supplement to the Denslow History treating the lodge’s centennial period of 1850 to 1950.  Mr. Robbins was also a member of the Moila Shrine Club.
Mr. Robbins is survived by his wife, Marilyn Robbins of the home; two daughters, Meredith Black and her husband, Gary of Trenton, MO and Marsha Eaton and her husband, Randall of Warsaw, MO; four grandsons, Guy Black of Jefferson City, MO, Jacob Black and his wife, Lindsey of Trenton, MO, Eran Eaton and his wife, Tammy of Columbia, MO, and Alex Eaton of Columbia, MO; three great granddaughters and two great grandsons; and two nieces, Sue McIntosh of Princeton, MO and Patricia Buffer of Raymore, MO.
Those preceding him in death include his parents Ray and Agnes Nigh Robbins and a brother Frank.