OLIN Robison, who has died aged 82, was an influential figure at Oxford University's Regent's Park College long after he left the city.

The American studied here for three years and remained connected to the city decades later through his work with the Oxford Centre for Christianity and Culture.

His time at the university was a transformative experience that shaped his intellectual and personal life.

Dr Robison credited Oxford with most of his professional success, including roles as special assistant to the US Deputy Undersecretary of State and college president of Middlebury College, Vermont.

Olin Robison was born on May 12, 1936, in Anacoco, Louisiana, in the USA.

His father, Audrey C. Robison, was a postman, while his mother, Ruby Robison, worked in a dry cleaners.

He had a younger sister, Sandra, and attended a public high school, before earning a music scholarship to attend Baylor University, Texas, graduating with a BA in history, religion, and philosophy in 1958.

Mr Robison then served as pastor of a small Baptist church in Texas and arrived in Oxford in 1960 as an ordained Baptist minister.

His time in the city was the most transformational opportunity of his life.

Despite spending just three years at Regent's Park College while he completed his Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil), he remained attached to the college for years to come.

While at Regent's Park, he joined the college’s preaching society and served as US Air Force civilian auxiliary chaplain.

He studied at the university at the same time as wife Sylvia Margaret Potter, with both calling their time in Oxford 'life-changing'.

In 1963, Dr Robison returned to Texas and the couple's first son, Gordon, was born, with two more children, Blake and Mark, following in 1966 and 1970.

In 1966, Dr Robison became special assistant to the US Deputy Undersecretary of State and was the State Department’s representative on the Rusk Commission, dealing with domestic intelligence.

But the appeal of college life remained strong and after various posts he was appointed college president at Middlebury in 1975.

Meanwhile, he joined several international organisations, including the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies and the Royal Institute of International Affairs.

These positions took him across the world, including the Soviet Union, France, and Canada.

Dr Robison stood down as president at Middlebury in 1991, taking up a teaching position, before becoming president of the Salzburg Global Seminar, a non-profit organization focusing on global issues.

He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws by Middlebury in 2000.

Dr Robison never lost touch with Regent’s and was strongly engaged from the 1980s onwards, stepping up his work in retirement.

He made strong links with the Oxford Centre for Christianity and Culture at Regent's Park, promoting its work on religion and public policy.

Dr Robison also assisted the college’s American fundraising efforts and was a keen supporter of its group of American advisors, while he encouraged Regent's Park to develop its internet-based work.

Towards the end of his life, he requested gifts in his memory be made to the centre's Project on Religion and Public Policy.

He and Sylvia divorced in 1996, but he enjoyed a loving relationship with his partner of a decade Marlie Rieder, and spent seven years with his companion and caregiver Connie Sophocles.

Olin Robison died on October 22, 2018, in Baltimore, Maryland, after a heroic 10-year battle with a degenerative neurological condition. He was also a prostate and colon cancer survivor.

He is survived by all three sons, his sister, as well as his former wife, Sylvia.