Andrew J Robbins was born in Morgantown, West Virginia on November 19, 1910.  His father was a builder and a contractor and did major construction jobs in Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

Andy had a sister, Jean Bartling, and a brother Donald, both are deceased.  His borther Leon was a long-time minister and missionary who is living in retirement in Yucaipa, California.

Andrew attended elementary and secondary schools in his home area of Morgantown.  He graduated from Morgantown High School in 1925.  At 16 years of age he headed for Takoma Park, Maryland with $100 in his pocket to attend Washington Missionary College and to become a minister of the gospel.

He did graduate from theology in 1931.  He was Class Pastor of his Senior Class and President of the Student Association.

While in college, he met Ollie and they soon became engaged.  They were married on July 28, 1931 in Columbia Hall, and the marriage was performed by Andy’s uncle, Frank H Robbins, at that time President of the Columbia Union Conference.

They began ministerial work as an intern in the old West Pennsylvania Conference.  His district included Johnstown, Altoona, and Indiana.  It was depression time, and there were very few funds available.  His salary was $21 per week.  He was ordained to the gospel ministry at a camp meeting session in June of 1935.

Elder and Mrs. Robbins received a call for pioneer evangelistic work in China and after accepting a call prepared for a period of service in another part of the world.  They left the United States in August of 1935 and sailed on the “SS President Johnson,” the only Seventh-day Adventist missionary on this trip.

In China, they soon got into a language-study program, under the supervision of W.A. Scharffenberg, who at that time was head of our school in China.  After just four months of language study, Andrew preached his first sermon.

Elder Robbins did evangelistic work in Mukden (Shen Yang), which was the headquarters of our wok in Manchuria.  They remained in service until 1939 when the Division recommended that they evacuate because of the war situation.

Upon his return to the United States, Elder Robbins went to the University of Chicago where he obtained a Master’s Degree in Oriental studies.  He then proceeded with his work for a Doctoral Degree.  He took all of his classwork and lacked only a thesis before he was called to serve as a teacher in the Department of Religion at Washington Missionary College in 1944.  During the time that he served as a teacher, he was also Pastor of the Arlington, Virginia Church where he put many of the theology students to work in a practical way.

In 1950, he was elected President of the West Pennsylvania Conference, the conference where he started his ministerial work.  In 1958, he was asked by the General Conference to return to the Orient and serve as President of the North Philippine Union Mission, a post he held until 1964 when he went to Hong Kong to serve as President of the Hong Kong-Macao Mission.  They remained in Hong Kong until his retirement in 1979.

Elder and Mrs. Robbins did voluntary work for two years, from 1979 to 1981 in Hong Kong as a hospital chaplain, pastor and teacher.

Elder and Mrs. Robbins have two children, David in Phoenix, Arizona and Linda in the state of Maine.

The Robbins chose Grand Terrace, California to be their retirement home.  They attended the Loma Linda Chinese Church.  Andrew passed away in 1996.