Robin Jovanovich is running for City Council on the All in for Rye team.
The writing life is one that Robin Jovanovich has pursued from an early age. When she won the first of several writing prizes as a seventh grader, she knew where she was going.
Born in Westport, Conn., she spent half of her childhood there and the other half in New York City, where she attended The Brearley School, acted in plays, and edited the school newspaper.
After earning an undergraduate degree in American Studies from Skidmore College, Robin went on to a career in newspaper and magazine publishing. She started off as a proofreader at The Westport News in 1973 and, six months later, was made an editor. She wrote news stories and features sometimes using a pseudonym because she contributed so much copy and took the accompanying photographs as well.
The following year, coming home from work late on a Sunday evening, a reckless driver rammed into her car head on. During her long recovery, she decided that working all hours at a community newspaper for little remuneration was not her life’s goal. She moved back to Manhattan and went to work for a Sunday supplement called Family Weekly, which was inserted in over 3,000 newspapers nationwide. In addition to interviewing the former First Ladies, she penned a regular column, “What in the World.” She enjoyed interviewing authors (Irwin Shaw, Anne Lindbergh, James Jones), U.S. presidential candidates (Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Morris Udall), a man serving a life sentence in a maximum-security prison, songwriters (Marvin Hamlisch, Neil Sedaka), actors (James Earl Jones, Dustin Hoffman, Joanne Woodward), and self-help professionals. It was, however, a conversation with a public relations specialist that stands out the most from those years. A Jewish woman who had fled Nazi Germany and eventually immigrated to the United States asked that we do whatever we could to “never let anyone forget the Holocaust.”
Senior editorships followed at Good Housekeeping, and Self. But after having two sons, she decided that working long hours at women’s magazines was not her life’s goal either.
Robin did freelance writing and editing and wrote a mystery for children while her husband Peter’s publishing career took the family to San Diego, London, New York, and Orlando.
In 1992, they were delighted to land in Rye and sink deep roots. While writing for The Westchester Wag and counting the years before she could go back and get a real job, Robin got involved with The Rye Arts Center serving on the board, co-chairing a fundraiser, and appearing in several of its musicals. For over a decade, she served on the board of the Rye Free Reading Room and co-chaired its annual book sale. She served on the City’s Board of Architectural Review and was also a deacon at Rye Presbyterian Church. More recently, she was on the board of 5 Steps to Five.
In 1997, she started looking for the perfect editorial job and, to her husband’s consternation, bought five designer suits to ensure that she landed one. When she realized that the perfect job was right in town, she wrote to Dolores Eyler, who had founded The Rye Record the year before. One freelance assignment led to her first and only bonus check and a position at the paper, working alongside Ms. Eyler and co-publisher Allen Clark.
In addition to editing and publishing the local newspaper, since 2016 Robin has served as president of The Alfred Harcourt Foundation, which annually provides college scholarships to 80 need-based students at four area institutions: College of Staten Island, Teacher Education Honors Academy, Baruch College, City College, and the College of New Jersey. She and her husband received honorary degrees from the College of Staten Island for their work there.
Earlier this year, Robin received the Rye Free Reading Room’s Mayor’s Award for her contributions to advancing the literary arts. She was previously honored by The Rye Arts Center and the Rye Youth Council for her work in the community.
In 2001, Peter Jovanovich, who had run three of the four largest educational publishing companies worldwide, was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. When he died in July 2024, he was one of the longest living double-lung transplant recipients.
It was owing to her husband’s declining health that Robin made the difficult decision to sell The Rye Record in 2023.
She takes every opportunity to play tennis, walk with friends, visit museums and see plays in New York City, read widely, and spend time with her family. Her older son, Nick, is a realtor with Douglas Elliman in Miami Beach; her younger son, Will, who is a financial advisor at UBS and his wife Sarah, a newly minted graduate of Columbia School of Nursing, are raising and educating their two children, Peter and Clara, in Rye.
Robin is All in for Rye.