Robinson McIlvaine (July 17, 1913 – June 24, 2001) was an American career diplomat who was President of the African Wildlife Foundation from 1978 to 1982.
[5] After they married, in 1946 McIlvaine became the owner, editor and publisher of The Archive, a Downingtown weekly that had been founded 1853 but was no longer much more than an advertising sheet, with 1,750 subscribers.
The book was made into a movie starring John Forsythe and Loretta Young, and then into a television series.
[10] Two days after he arrived as ambassador in Conakry, Guinea, McIlvaine and all other Americans in the country were put under house arrest.
One of the most successful projects he initiated was formation of a consortium to protect the threatened mountain gorillas of Rwanda.
Robinson McIlvaine later said that "There would be no mountain gorillas in the Virungas today ... were it not for Dian Fossey's tireless efforts over many years".
[12] According to Farley Mowat in his book Woman in the Mists, Dian Fossey asked Robinson McIlvaine to serve as secretary-treasurer of the Digit Fund while he was AWLF President until she could find a salaried executive director to take over.
[3] Mia McIlvaine Merle-Smith, a daughter by his first marriage, was lost at sea while trying to sail across the Atlantic with her husband in 1971.