The Robinsons come from a well-established Pittsburgh family. Archibald Dale Mason, the son of Revolutionary War soldier Arthur Mason and the great-grandfather of William Christopher Robinson, for whom the fund is named, moved to Pittsburgh in 1806, when the city was transitioning from a busy trading post to an industrious metropolis. Mason worked as a carpenter on the first steamboat to launch west of the Allegheny Mountains, the New Orleans. His passion for carpentry led him to open a lumber business and sawmill on Rebecca Street.
In 1818 he married his second wife, Althea Geer. One of their eight children, Mary Anne, married William Dilworth Jr., to whom Archibald Mason passed on the company.
William Dilworth Jr. operated the business for many years. Before Mary's untimely death in 1864 at the age of 42, the couple had 5 children, among them Althea Rebecca Dilworth, William Christopher Robinson's mother. Althea was born in 1844 and married George Thomas Robinson, a senior partner at Robinson, Rea, and Company, then the most prominent foundry in Pittsburgh, located on Smithfield Street.
George and Althea had six children, among them, William Christopher Robinson. William was an 1895 graduate of Yale University, and the president of National Metal Molding Company, in Ambridge Borough. William married Mary McLaughlin in 1902, and they had five children, Alexander Laughlin, William Christopher Jr., Henry Stuart, Mary Franklin, and Althea Robinson Gorman.
Althea was born in 1916 in Sewickley, PA, and married twice, to C. Snowdon Richards and Paul A. Gorman. An alumna of Miss Porter's School in Farmington, CT, and an experienced equestrian, she served as a board member of Allegheny General Hospital, was part of the Garden Club of Allegheny County, and the Little Garden Club of Sewickley. She had 4 children, 3 predeceased, and 11 grandchildren. Upon her parent's death she advised the fund, which was transferred from the Robinson Foundation to the Pittsburgh Foundation in 1972.
Althea passed away on March 6, 2006, at the age of 90.
The fund continues to support many organizations in the region, serving as a testament to the family's long-standing Pittsburgh legacy.