Jackie Robinson (1919-1972), American athlete, business executive, and civil rights leader. Born in Cairo, Georgia, to a family of sharecroppers, Jack Roosevelt Robinson attended Pasadena Junior College in California and the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). At UCLA he demonstrated exceptional athletic ability and became the first UCLA student-athlete to win varsity letters in four sports—football, basketball, baseball, and track. In 1941 Robinson left college to join the United States Army. After graduating …showed first 75 words of 675 total…

…showed last 75 words of 675 total…served as special assistant for civil rights to Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York. Robinson starred in the motion picture “The Jackie Robinson Story” (1950) and was the author, with Alfred Duckett, of “I Never Had It Made” (1972). Robinson died October 24, 1972, in Stamford, Connecticut. The inscription that appears on Robinson’s grave stone is one that he wrote for himself. It reads: "A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.