At this point you have probably seen one of the pictures taken by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. But you may not have known that the Webb Program Director since 2018 is Greg Robinson, a Pittsylvania County native and 1978 graduate of Dan River High School.
Robinson was a special guest on Pittco Happenings, a county government podcast show, to talk about his local ties, explain the operations and significance of the James Webb Telescope, and share some advice for his Pittsylvania County and Danville communities.
Before Pittsylvania County Schools integrated in 1970, Robinson attended three elementary schools in the County: Southside, Mount Hermon, and Glenwood. He attended Blairs Junior High School before going to Dan River High School in the ninth grade. Robinson was the ninth of eleven children born to a family of sharecroppers, and he was the only one to pursue a STEM-related field. He earned a Bachelor’s in Math from Virginia Union University and a Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering from Howard University. Before the pandemic, Robinson says that he would visit his family in Pittsylvania County several times a year.
You can read more about Robinson’s story and listen to the podcast on the county government website found here.
