Ray Robinson Jr. was called to follow his father into the ministry, becoming a pastor at the age of 21.
He discovered his professional passion more than a decade earlier.
“I was around 8 or 9 and my brother’s death left my eyes open to the death business,” says Robinson, owner and director of the Brown-Robinson Funeral Homes with locations in Lorain and Sandusky. “It was a gentleman by the name of Carl Gerber who took the time to explain to me what it meant for my brother to be deceased.”
Gerber, a long-time funeral home operator from Huron County who passed away in 2017, took the time to explain that while Robinson’s brother appeared to be sleeping, the things that made him his brother had gone back to be with God.
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Courtesy of Ray Robinson Jr.Brown-Robinson Funeral Homes' Sandusky location“It was at that point that I recognized that this was a powerful profession,” Robinson says. “It’s a powerful profession if it’s done right and it’s a powerful profession if it’s done wrong because you're helping with the first steps of healing.”
Robinson, a Norwalk native and 1995 graduate of Norwalk High School, went on to Central State University. He became an ordained elder and co-pastor of Christ’s Temple Church in Norwalk with his father, the late elder Ray H. Robinson Sr.
Then it was off to Cincinnati Mortuary School, where he became a master embalmer.
“I’ve been trained beyond the normal mortuary school,” Robinson says. “I’ve taken advanced classes to increase my embalming abilities and growing up in a pastoral home, it teaches you a different level of compassion and caring and listening to a family. My dad was a pastor, so being able to be sensitive and knowing how to respond through the difficult moments has just been a part of who I am.”
Another part has been being that person who has been in the right place at the right time. While still working on his studies, Robinson found out that the late Vernon L. Brown wanted to retire from the funeral home business. The home, located in downtown Lorain and opened in 1942, is the oldest African-American home in Lorain County.
“He was ready to get out of the business and I was ready to get into it,” Robinson says. “He had nobody in his family who wanted to continue on, so when he saw that I had the desire and passion for it, he took me under his wings and worked out a deal where I could buy it from him and become the owner.”
Robinson took over the home, located in downtown Lorain, in November 1998, and kept the Brown name as part of the new business venture.
“I wanted the legacy to show the communities that we served that we were not just starting,” he says. “Even though I was new, the tradition of caring for families that give us the honor to care for them, that was the continuation of a long tradition.”
His move to Sandusky at 1814 Milan Road, in the old Father’s Heart Church, seemed to be another run-in with destiny for Robinson.
“We were serving the family of the late Stan Johnson in Sandusky and we held the funeral there,” Robinson says. “I had always had the desire to come back to the area, and when we had that service there, during conversations with Pastor Tony Robinson, he let me know he was looking to go into a new building and I told him that this would be an ideal location for a funeral home.
“He’s Pastor Tony Robinson and I’m Ray Robinson. It was just a divine connection.”
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Holly and Ray Robinson Jr.The Milan Road location did require some renovation, including new carpeting and changing the layout to fit the new use for the space. But Robinson did keep the sanctuary and a place that can be used for socializing after a funeral called the repast hall.
“The facility in Sandusky offered more than just your normal funeral home,” Robinson says. “It already had the repast hall and it has ample parking. It was a church and most funerals are conducted in a church, so it gives us the area to be meaningful for any sized family, any type of faith.”
The Sandusky location is approximately 11,000 sq. ft, in size, with both handicapped and regular parking. Robinson then added a 22,000-square-foot facility by revamping the old DeLuca’s Place in the Park banquet facility in Lorain into his third funeral home.
“We have more of what we can a celebration center,” he says. “We’re in a day and time where we don’t just want to mourn the loss, we want to celebrate the life.”
The home that Robinson got the business started in remains the historical landmark of the operation.
“The very first location follows the pattern of a traditional funeral home,” he says. “It was a home that we expanded until we ran out of space to expand and still accommodate parking.”
The Brown-Robinson Funeral Home group offers full services, including things such as free pre-planning services and green burial services. Robinson also tries to make his facilities open to community partnerships.
“We want to be a bridge, we want to plant roots, we want to create relationships,” he says. “The space we have to offer, the parking we have to offer, it can be used. If there’s an event that you need the kind of space we have to offer, we’re more than willing to try to work it out so that we can be of help to our neighbors.”
Robinson and his wife Holly have three sons, Ray III, Jacob, and Spencer. Ray is following in his father’s footsteps into the funeral home business and is currently working on his undergraduate degree from Central State University before heading to Cincinnati Mortuary School. Jacob is playing football for Baldwin-Wallace University, and may eventually become part of the family business, while Spencer is a student at St. Edwards High School in Lakewood.
Three sons and three businesses is still not quite enough for Robinson and his wife. After serving as a pastor in Norwalk with his father, he took over a ministry in Lorain and eventually opened the Living Word Church, also in Lorain, 15 years ago with his wife.
“If the Lord opens the door, we are open to whatever he has for us,” he says.