Cranbrook Educator Died Doing What He Loved

BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, MI — A longtime Cranbrook educator who died while bicycling in Wyoming earlier this month is being remembered this week as an educator who stoked the scientific curiosity of his students and prodded them to ask questions until they got a satisfactory answer.

Miles Robinson, 66, was on a bicycle trip with his wife, Kai, on July 20, when he struck a cattle crossing and died from the fall.

“It was a beautiful day and he was just enjoying the ride tremendously,” Kai Robinson told The Birmingham Eccentric. “I caught up to him at a rest stop a few miles before the accident and asked if he wanted some company. He told me he was having such a great day, and that he wanted to ride solo so he could take some photographs and enjoy the moment.”

The Bloomfield Township couple met on a bike trip in 1979, married a few years later and have since explored the country on their bicycles. Both were educators at Cranbrook. Miles Robinson recently retired from Cranbrook Kingswood Middle School, where he was a long-tenured member of the faculty, and Kia Robinson is assistant head of the Brookside Lower School.

Kai Robinson said her late husband “wanted his students to walk away with a scientific curiosity.”

“The two things he taught were to be curious and ask questions, and never give up. And, as long as you were moving forward, you were successful,” she said.

Miles Robinson was an enthusiastic cyclist who logged thousands of miles on his bike every year, he was fascinated enough by the mechanics of how they work that he once took a course on building frames and was “committed to promoting non-motorized transportation,” his wife said.

“ ... He loved the idea of being independent and the satisfaction of traveling under your own power,” she said.

Besides his wife, he is survived by a son, Jackson Radish, 31, a special education teacher in New York City; and a daughter, Hannah Robinson, 29, who teaches math at the Upper School at Cranbrook.

Brookside educator Monica Johnson Pescarino established GoFundMe memorial site for Miles Robinson. A celebration of his life will take place at Cranbrook near the end of August.

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