There’s no way to measure the what-ifs of history, but Susquehanna Style’s 2019 Men of Style show the good that actually happens when determination and passion come to the helm. Whether fighting for the legal rights of refugees, building bridges between police and the community, or sparking downtown revitalization with creativity and verve, each harbors an unshakeable belief in the possible.
Joseph Robinson, Harrisburg
When the South Central PA Sickle Cell Council found itself leaderless, the founder asked Joe Robinson to step in for a year. “Yeah, I could do that for a year,” Robinson responded. Today, he says, “I’m in my 10th year.” Robinson has parlayed his retirement years into community service—building the Sickle Cell Council into a respected advocate for “the forgotten disease,” volunteering as executive director for the Martin Luther King Jr. Leadership Development Institute, and recently being recognized by Dauphin County for his role in a municipal program building bridges between police and youth. “It’s all about service,” he says.
Robinson had 26 years of management experience with PennDOT but had never run a nonprofit when the Sickle Cell Council called. He quickly learned that “’nonprofit’ is clearly just a tax term. You better have some money coming in the doors, or you won’t have any doors,” he says. Robinson’s mindset, seeing service through a management lens, inspired him to write a book, 7 Leadership Imperatives from a Wild Man (Judson Press, 2008. Drawing lessons from the life of John the Baptist, Robinson presents such essentials as “be sure,” “be humble,” and “be uncompromising.”
Under Robinson’s guidance, the Sickle Cell Council worked with state Sen. John DiSanto to note World Sickle Cell Day by lighting up the state Capitol in red, the color of the cause. The state’s four regional sickle cell councils now work collaboratively to project a unified voice on the importance of funding and adequate treatment.
The MLK Institute, founded originally to stem brain drain and the flight of African-Americans from the Harrisburg area, recently graduated its seventh class. Robinson has been executive director since the beginning, in 2008. Today, more than 100 alumni represent a diverse group— all races and nationalities, ranging from people with no college degree to doctorates, and from ex-offenders to elected officials.
“Dr. King was all about the beloved community that is open to everybody,” says Robinson. “If we can get everybody on the same page and release them back into the community, now we’ve got a critical mass of folk who have a similar orientation, who can work together and bring about change.”
With the police department and school district in Robinson’s home municipality of Susquehanna Township, Robinson helps plan events convening students and police officers to interact and learn about each other. The program has contributed to a decrease in juvenile arrests. Robinson also serves on the Boy Scouts’ New Birth of Freedom Council executive committee, his way of encouraging minority representation and participation. He knows his voice can’t speak for every African-American, but he tries to bring diverse views into the causes he engages in. “Sometimes, people discount you because there’s just a blind spot,” he says. “Until you’re there in the room, they can’t have that ‘aha moment’ and say, ‘Let’s look at it from another perspective.’”
His wife of 34 years, Edna Robinson, is active in their church, the go-to person “when everyone’s scratching their heads.” She devotes her talents to supporting her husband’s causes. “The Bible says when we get married to find a helpmate,” he says. “She is a helpmate, truly.” His life of service hearkens to his belief that “through our faith in Christ, there’s more to life than what’s on this side. The Bible says Christ asked the question, ‘Who’s your neighbor?’ It’s about recognizing that we have a responsibility to not only treat people as we would like to be treated, but to treat people the way they deserve to be treated.”
Marty Hulse, Lancaster
Marty Hulse has been discussing his businesses and their role in downtown Lancaster’s retail revival. Then the conversation turns to his devotion to the art of printing. “Oh, yeah,” he says. “I do that, too.”
Hulse is a busy man. Lancaster-born and -bred, he once envisioned a journalism career changing the world. Instead, the world he has helped change is his hometown. He is the owner of BUiLDiNG CHARACTER–the retail co-op for all things vintage, repurposed, and handmade that now anchors the bustling 300 block of North Queen Street–as well as its younger sibling, Madcap & Co. gift shop.
He once wondered, “How hard is it to put out some flowers just to make Lancaster look pretty?” He learned the answer–much harder than it looks–as immediate past president of LEADS, the Lancaster beautification organization responsible for 250 flowering baskets brightening city streets and providing holiday decorations. “LEADS fits with my love of downtown and wanting it to be a place where everybody wants to come,” Hulse says.
A career in journalism brought him to the Lancaster New Era in his beloved hometown. While restoring an old house in his childhood neighborhood of Cabbage Hill and developing an appreciation for the architectural finery of the past, he and a friend cofounded BUiLDiNG CHARACTER as an architectural salvage warehouse. A year and a half later, in 2009, that sideline became Hulse’s “something to fall back on” when the New Era printed its last edition. “I was always thinking with my entrepreneurial mind,” he says. “I was always trying to think of something bigger and something better.”
BUiLDiNG CHARACTER, housed in a C. Emlen Urban-designed warehouse owned by Ecklin Development and once threatened with demolition, evolved into today’s hub and community for people producing all things weird and wonderful. Art club members from J.P. McCaskey High School, the alma mater “near and dear” to Hulse’s heart, sell their artwork to raise funds for supplies.
BUiLDiNG CHARACTER shoppers carry their purchases in bags produced onsite in the Heritage Press Museum’s recreated 1920s print shop. Hulse offers the space as a continuation of his love affair for all things printed that began when he was about 10 years old, publishing a neighborhood newspaper and using a Fisher Price printer’s kit to punch up the headlines.
Lancaster, he says, “was instrumental in printing in the 1700s,” home to four Benjamin Franklin-owned shops and one of the first female printers in America. The city’s historic entrepreneurial spirit is what makes Lancaster vibrant today.
“It’s been magical since 1730, when Central Market opened,” he says. “It’s always been a center of commerce.” His generations of Lancastrian ancestors include Matthias Zahm–court crier, member of a family that owned part of Penn Square, and diarist recording sharp observations of daily life, from stable fires to “the most splendid northern lights imaginable.”
Hulse’s parents, Franklin, Sr., and Shirley Hulse “have been supportive of everything I’ve ever done, ever.” His father financed that little newspaper from Lafayette Street on Cabbage Hill. “I am who I am today because of them,” Hulse says. Rather than take credit for the team effort behind Lancaster’s rebirth, he prefers to “see the fruits of my enthusiasm.” He recently marveled at a trio of 20-somethings who spent two hours exploring BUiLDiNG CHARACTER. Lancaster’s commerce scene, he realized, has created its own form of specialty, destination retail that resonates even in the age of the internet.
“They’re that Gen Z, and they’re appreciating what’s in here and what we’re doing,” he says. “That’s cool that new generations are latching on to what we’re doing. That could be a result of what I do, is to keep it going.”
Jeffrey Lobach, York
News that 154 Chinese asylum-seekers would be detained in York County hardly seemed momentous. But then the Immigration and Naturalization Service called the York County Bar Association. Could its members represent the refugees?
“We were somewhat naïve,” admits Jeffrey Lobach, now managing partner of Barley Snyder. “We didn’t realize they were just trying to get some lawyers to say there were lawyers representing these people.”
Lobach’s career and civic engagement devoted to the betterment of his hometown spans a wide range of interests, but the years from 1993 to 1997—when he was seeking justice for asylum seekers from a ship called the Golden Venture—changed his life and the course of the community.
The refugees sought escape from a Chinese government oppressing pro-democracy activism and Christian beliefs. It was also enforcing its one-child policy through forced sterilizations and abortions. But the Clinton administration, determined to deter human smuggling, shut the door to asylum. In York, the detainees experienced closed-door hearings so pre-determined that one judge arrived at a hearing to find the denial order already signed.
“They were getting railroaded, and in York County, we said no,” says Lobach, then president of the York County Bar Association. Clergy led protests every Sunday. Cindy Lobach, Jeff’s wife, interviewed detainees and cataloged their intricate origami artwork. A few refugees won asylum. Others gave up and returned to China. In 1997, U.S. Rep. William Goodling convinced President Bill Clinton to parole the remaining 55.
“Immigration is probably always going to be a divisive political issue, but one thing we all ought to agree on is that whatever our laws are, they have to be followed by the government,” Lobach says today. “If the law requires an asylum hearing, it should be a meaningful asylum hearing where somebody gets to present evidence.”
Lobach won asylum for one detainee who came to live with his family and became a fourth son. His daughter now is the Lobachs’ granddaughter. “How do you calculate the value of having a wonderful family member who you’re really proud of and sort of completes our family?” Lobach says.
Today, Lobach serves in leadership roles for the Boy Scouts of America New Birth of Freedom Council, Wellspan Health, the York Health Foundation, and York County Community Foundation. He leads efforts to address the problems intertwined in health, education, and poverty.
“We’ve got to get the right solution, and we’ve also got to get input from the people we’re trying to help,” he says. “If you don’t have buy-in, you’re not going to make progress.”
In his spare time, he quips, “I’m a lawyer.” He co-owns 21 Red Robin restaurants. He is writing a history of his church, First Presbyterian Church of York, which in 1962 became one of the first to merge with an African-American church. He brings his rescue dog Harley—“He was billed as papillon mix, but he’s 99 percent mix and maybe 1 percent papillon”—to work.
He and Cindy “are a team.” In the wake of the Golden Venture fight, the two helped co-found the Pennsylvania Immigration Resource Center. He credits “so many people in this community who do more than I do.” As for his own work, he likes to think “that some things happened that were good things that might not have happened, or might have happened in a different way.”
He adds, “But who knows?” And then he gives a shout-out to York. “I’m sure I would never have had the kinds of opportunities to make a difference in another community that I’ve had here.”
