Honoring Robin MacArthur

A few times a year, Rosemary Farm is asked to create a dedicated memorial page to honor someone who has passed away and wishes donations to come to the sanctuary in remembrance of their passing. However, there is only one Mom of the founder of Rosemary Farm, and her name was Robin Mary MacArthur...

Robin was the eldest of three children, growing up in the Washington DC area, the daughter of a film and TV critic.They had a colorful childhood, filled with all normal family things, including a mixed mutt called Little Gus. As she became a young woman, Robin met and married her only husband, and became the mother to three girls. Robin instilled in all of her girls a love of animals and a desire to make the world a better place. The eldest, Dawn Robyn, is a name familiar to Rosemary Farm friends! Robin, like many women, became a single mother, raising her girls with love.

In retirement, she loved sheltie dogs, quilting, arguing politics, studying history and researching genealogy. She spent time at the growing Rosemary Farm and got to know many of the horses, including her favorite, the lead mare Molly. Robin also supported many animal rescues and human rights causes, and owned several sheltie dogs during her life, the last a senior rescue who was blind and deaf, named Jaimie, who blossomed under her care.

She lived to 75 years, departing after a brief illness, giving time to the family to gather and share our tremendous love and gratitude for her lifetime of incredible generosity of spirit.

In lieu of flowers, Robin's last request was for friends to help the rescues she loved; Rosemary Farm Sanctuary (this page) or the Northern Virginia Sheltie Rescue, at http://www.nvsr.org/index.html . Both are 501c-3 non-profit rescues doing valuable work that she cherished.

Robin's influence in the very creation and endurance of Rosemary Farm cannot be measured. She will be enormously missed.

Dawn Robyn, Founder, Rosemary Farm Sanctuary