Meet Your Neighbor… Denise Robb

By DONNA NICKEL

Yes, it's true: the woman who answers the phone at the North Canton Playhouse office really is as nice as she sounds. Denise Robb claims she's never had a negative phone call in the two years she's been the office administrator at the NCP. “Each caller is my most important person of the day while they are on the phone with me,” she said. “People call to ask a question or make reservations and we somehow always wind up making a connection. I feel like I do “Meet Your Neighbor” 20 to 40 times each day. I'm a people person, so being in the office mostly by myself all day, you'd think I'd be lonely, but I'm not. I have literally found a home at the Playhouse; it's where I want to be.”
Denise's original home was in the South Hills of Pittsburgh. Her father was an engineer for Westinghouse – “he was self-made, he didn't have an engineering degree” - and her mother was an executive secretary with the post office.
Show business has been a part of her life for as long as she can remember; to date Denise has performed in approximately 150 shows. As a young girl, she was involved in radio, television and documentary films. She recalls working at WQED with the legendary Fred Rogers before his Mr. Roger's Neighborhood days. A crewmember told her to remove her eyeglasses because of the glare. Rogers insisted she be permitted to keep the glasses during filming. “He even wrote something in to the script, saying even if you eat all of your carrots, you might still have to wear glasses. He made it okay.”
After graduating Baldwin High in 1965, Denise knew she wanted to study at Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University). “My dad, who died when I was 14 had always dreamed of going there. My two passions were science and drama; Carnegie Tech had the best of both.” Her mother made the decision easy for her. “She told me that if I chose drama, I'd pay for it, but if I went with engineering, she'd pay. I got the message. She knew what she was talking about because she was living the reality that a woman might have to work all her life.”
After graduating with a degree in engineering/technical writing and editing she spent a year with Westinghouse as technical writer before hiring on with PPG at its Harmarville location. When she and her husband Chuck, her college sweetheart started a family, she did consulting work out of her home. Her son Keith now lives in Streetsboro and is an investigator for a communications company, while son Andrew is an engineer with Proctor and Gamble in Iowa.
Her husband's career as metallurgical engineer relocated the family to New Jersey for four years and then to Wooster. For the six years she spent in Wooster, Denise continued her involvement in theater even as she worked in the college's language lab helping international students. While acting in a play at the Canton Players Guild, Phil Robb, a theater professor at Kent State University's Stark Campus was in the audience one evening to see one of his students perform. Denise caught his eye and he asked her to audition for one of his shows. “We actually appeared on stage together and spent the next three years in a “hi, how are you...” relationship.” When Denise and her husband divorced three years later, they began dating. The couple married in 1990 and moved to North Canton because of the school system.
A woman of many interests, Denise took graduate courses in special education, worked in insurance and eventually ended up at Prudential DeHoff. She said she will forever appreciate Linda DeHoff sponsoring her for Leadership of Stark County (LSC), an educational program that teaches leadership skills and encourages volunteerism and community involvement. “It was phenomenal; the best thing that ever happened to me. So many opportunities opened to me because of the training. It was more valuable than any hour I spent at any place of higher learning.” A member of the 13th LSC class, Denise has volunteered in many local organizations, including: Have a Heart committees, Mercy Service League, the Board of Palace Theater, the Board of North Canton Playhouse, Hall of Fame committees, Salvation Army. She has also served at St. Paul Church as a member of Parish Council, a lector/cantor for masses and has been involved in a number of the church's committees. Denise is currently the first female vice president of the North Canton Lion's Club.
Prior to coming to the NCP, Denise was a familiar face at the North Canton Chamber of Commerce as Kathy Dunlap's assistant. “Every phone call was my best phone call. I loved it there.”
Denise and her husband share antiquing as a hobby. “I'm proud to say of all the chairs at our large table, no two chairs match.” She also runs a convent - sort of – in her home called “Nun of the Above.” Ten years of Catholic school made a lasting impact on Denise. “I have a very large collection of nun dolls. I refuse to count them but I probably have more that 1,000. I buy every one that I find, if I can afford it.” These dolls don't live in boxes under the bed either. The entire collection is on display throughout her home. “I figure if anyone breaks in, they'll see the nuns and run screaming out of the house.”
While she adores her cats Birdy and Bogie – named for a stage show and the actor, no golf involved – Denise has fallen in love with a little girl named after the 40th president of the United States.
“I'm absolutely passionate about Reagan,” she said of her first grandchild born in July to her son Andrew and his wife Debbie (Minner). “I feel like I've been living my life to be her grandmother.” Airline tickets are purchased and Denise plans on an extended visit to Iowa in the very near future.
Wherever life has taken her and whatever experiences await her, Denise said she will always be aware of and grateful for lasting relationships. “In every place, geographically and every workplace, I've nurtured at least one forever friendship and I treasure that.”