Anthony W. Robbins Obituary
Anthony "Tony" Robbins, a physician and public health leader who spent over five decades protecting the health of workers, children, and communities died peacefully at his home in Rockport, MA, on Sunday, July 5, 2026, after a long illness. Dedicated to good public policy and good science, he was happiest when making "good trouble".
Born in New York City to I.D. Robbins, a builder and civic leader, and Carolyn Marx Robbins, an editor and columnist, Tony attended Elizabeth Irwin High School. He graduated from Harvard College in 1962 and from Yale School of Medicine in 1967, trained in internal medicine at Boston's Beth Israel Hospital, and earned a master's degree at Harvard's Kennedy School.
In 1973, at age 32, he became Vermont's Commissioner of Health, the youngest state health officer in the nation. There he launched the country's first WIC feeding program for mothers and young children, delivered by Vermont's milkmen to spare families any stigma, and the first state children's dental insurance program, the Tooth Fairy Program. In 1976 he became head of the Colorado State Department of Health and made headlines by banning smoking in the department's offices, decades before such workplace bans became commonplace. He took on the federal government over radioactive and nerve-gas components leaking from the Rocky Flats weapons plant and Rocky Mountain Arsenal near Denver, insisting the hazards be removed from civilian population areas, and ultimately won both fights.
Tony moved to the federal government in 1978 as Director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health for three years, then served as senior health staff for the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee for five. He helped defeat deep cuts to Medicaid and public health programs, negotiated the rotating warning labels still printed on cigarette packs today, and drafted legislation that created the National Vaccine Program. He was elected President of the American Public Health Association in 1981.
Vaccines became a defining cause of his later career. As a professor at Boston University, he worked with the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and the Rockefeller Foundation to speed development of vaccines for the world's most vulnerable populations. In 1993 the Clinton administration called him back to DC to direct the National Vaccine Program where he issued the nation's first National Vaccine Plan.
He went on to edit Public Health Reports, the century-old journal of the U.S. Public Health Service. In 1999 he joined Tufts University School of Medicine as professor and chair of the Department of Public Health and Family Medicine. For sixteen years, he and his wife, Phyllis Freeman, served as co-editors of the Journal of Public Health Policy, a job they describe as a labor of love. In 2017 when the Trump administration banned the CDC from using seven words, including "fetus," "transgender," and"evidence-based," Tony responded in characteristic style: the Journal announced a contest challenging readers to use all seven words in a single sentence and published winners.
Tony spent many summers and weekends in Chittenden, Vermont, in a house he had hand-built with friends in the summer of 1969. With Phyllis he also lived in Mexico and in Paris. He loved farmers markets, cross-country skiing, fresh corn on the cob, making puns, and international travel.
He was predeceased by his first wife, Jennifer Lauterbach Robbins, a lawyer and civil servant, who died in 1987. He is survived by his wife, Phyllis; his sons, Jack L. Robbins of New York City, and Richard E. Robbins of Los Angeles; his brother, John Robbins of Sacramento; and four grandchildren, Willa, Leo, James, and Caleb.
There will be a Memorial Service on the afternoon of 19 September 2026 at Rockport Music's Shalin Liu Performance Center, Rockport, MA.
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