Sir Dove-Myer Robinson (15 June 1901 – 14 August 1989) was Mayor of Auckland City from 1959 to 1965 and from 1968 to 1980, the longest tenure of any holder of the office. He was a colourful character and became affectionately known across New Zealand as "Robbie". He was one of several Jewish mayors of Auckland, although he rejected Judaism as a teenager and became a lifelong atheist. He has been described as a "slight, bespectacled man whose tiny stature was offset by a booming voice and massive ego". Biography Early life and career Born Mayer Dove Robinson in Sheffield, England, he was the sixth of seven children of Ida Brown and Moss Robinson. While his father described himself as a master jeweller, he actually sold trinkets and second-hand furniture, and the family was poor and often on the move. Robinson's mother influenced his upbringing by transmitting the strict values her rabbi father had taught her. His Jewish heritage ensured that he was often targeted by anti-semitic violence in the schools he attended. The family moved to New Zealand in 1914, where his father worked as a pawnbroker. Dove-Myer, as he later called himself (ignoring his Robinson family name), found New Zealand agreeable and lacking in the intermittent persecutions he had previously faced. Robinson began working as a travelling salesman, selling motorcycles. In Gore he met Adelaide (Adele) Elizabeth Matthews, the first of his four wives and on 12 September 1924 the two married, having two daughters. The pair divorced in 1932. He established Robinson's Motor Cycle and Bicycle Depot in 1930, but the business struggled as a result of the Great Depression, expanding to include cars. He married Veda Alice Davis, a 17-year-old, on 7 December 1937. The marriage only lasted a month and in 1940 they divorced. Robinson had begun living with Bettine (Betty) Williams, a seamstress, and on 15 March 1941 they married and had two daughters and one son. He raced motorcycles as well as selling them and for a time he was a sidecar racing champion. He held the World 500cc Speedway title in 1936. His racing injuries (and impaired eyesight) excused him from military service in World War II. During and after the war he and Betty focused on creating their own company, Childswear Ltd, into a prosperous clothes manufacturing business. Political activism Robinson entered politics in the late 1940s when he led the