[2] A native of Anacoco, Louisiana, Robison studied at Baylor University and Southwestern Theological Seminary, and received a D.Phil.
A personal and professional interest for Robison was the Soviet Union and its political relations with the United States.
Robison's tenure at Middlebury saw growth in student enrollment and physical infrastructure, and the conversion of fraternities to less exclusive "social houses."
He also reinvigorated Middlebury's international reputation through expansion of language teaching and the recruitment of foreign-national students, particularly from the former Soviet Union and East European countries.
Following retirement in 1990, Robison continued to teach before serving as the eighth president of the Salzburg Global Seminar, a non-profit organization based in Salzburg, Austria whose mission is to challenge current and future leaders to develop creative ideas for solving global problems.