BEDFORD-STUYVESANT, BROOKLYN — James “Rocky” Robinson, founder of the Bedford Stuyvesant Volunteer Ambulance Corps, died Friday morning at age 79, according to officials and reports.
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Robinson, a Bed-Stuy hero honored by presidents for his Bed-Stuy emergency response team and who once carried the Olympic Torch down Fifth Avenue, died from kidney failure after a long illness about 10 a.m., his son told Brooklyn News 12.
City Councilman Robert Cornegy and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams took to Twitter to mourn the loss of a man who saved countless Bed-Stuy lives with an emergency response team that brought the average ambulance wait time from 30 minutes to four, according to his biography.
“James ‘Rocky’ Robinson was a real leader and man of principle,” Cornegy said. “After starting a one-man ambulance operation, he fostered a new generation of leaders and life savers …. I wish you peace and comfort.”
Added Adams, “To truly honor a mission as vital as Rocky’s, we must erect a permanent facility to house his corps.”
Robinson’s life was one of service.
As a member of the Arlington National Cemetery Honor Guard, he stood watch when former First Lady Jackie Kennedy and her children visited President John F. Kennedy’s grave.
He served more than 30 years with New York’s Emergency Medical Service, retiring in 2000, and in 1988 he founded BSVAC, the nation’s first minority volunteer ambulance corps, according to his bio.
Through BSVAC, Robinson provided emergency medical training to minority communities across the United States, responded to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and helped save the life of a firefighter on 9/11, his New York state senate biography reads.
BSVAC responded to Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Sandy, and it sent the first medical support team to reach Haiti after the 2010 earthquake, according to his bio.
His work earned Robinson the Robin Hood Foundation Hero of the Year Award, the New York City Hero Award, the American Institute of Public Service Jefferson Award and the Points of Light Award, which was awarded by President George Bush.
He was born on July 15, 1940, in Marietta, North Carolina.
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