I’ve just received the heartbreaking news that Robin Fort-Lincke passed away on April 4th. If you’ve enjoyed any of the programming on SBTV3, including the televised feeds of the Seal Beach Christmas Parade or city council meetings, you’ve seen examples of Robin’s work. She touched many lives and earned the respect and affection of anyone she worked with. She was the heart and soul of SBTV3.
The Celebration of Life for Robin Fort-Lincke will be on Thursday, April 27 at noon in the Grace Church of Seal Beach at 138 8th Street Seal Beach on the corner of Eighth Street and Central Avenue in Old Town.
It seems fitting that Robin’s life celebration services be held across the street from the old Seal Beach City Hall building where the SBTV3 facilities are housed. Robin loved working in that building and shared many of the images and facts that she had collected about the place for the blog, including the architectural renderings featured in this post for February 14, 1929 and some of the research and images in this October 28, 1929 post on the dedication of the then-new city hall.
I first got to know Robin when we both served on the Seal Beach Centennial history committee. Robin was a behind-the-scenes sort of person, a refreshing quality when so many egos and personalities insist on being the center of attention.
This was not shyness. Robin was deservedly proud of her accomplishments and not afraid to share her point of view. She was about the work, not the glory. She had to deal and interact with a variety of personalities in her work, and Robin will always be a role model to me for the patience and equanimity she brought to those interactions.
She was a great supporter of this blog and preserving Seal Beach history in general. I remember with great fondness all the hours I spent with Robin in the SBTV3 offices and studio discussing Seal Beach history during the centennial celebration and on our many phone calls after I left Seal Beach in 2016. And I could always rely on Robin for the latest Seal Beach news and gossip.
I will miss her greatly.
— Michael Dobkins