James D. Robinson III, who from 1977 to 1993 as CEO of the American Express Company helped transform Wall Street into a more competitive financial marketplace, with a wide variety of companies under one roof, died Monday in Roslyn, N.Y. Long Island. He was 88.

The death, at a hospital, was caused by respiratory failure due to recurrent pneumonia, Walter Montgomery, a family spokesman, wrote in an announcement.

The son of Georgia nobility, Mr. Robinson followed a well-trodden path to financial success, power and influence: from private school to the Ivy League and then to the affluent canyons of Lower Manhattan, with forays into the halls of Capitol Hill.

In Washington, he was among Wall Street’s most influential advocates for deregulating the financial industry and broadening its horizons. Some called him the unofficial Secretary of State for corporate America.

The deregulation he fought for was largely achieved when Congress repealed the crisis-era Glass-Steagall legislation in 1999. As a result, commercial banks were given the authority to underwrite and trade corporate bonds and own insurance companies.

This cultural shift also prompted the securities industry to respond with increasingly sophisticated and complex computerized products. These included highly leveraged derivatives, which played a major role in the 2008 market crisis.

But while Mr. Robinson subsequently acknowledged that financial deregulation “went too far,” he never advocated reimposing Glass-Steagall restrictions, which had erected a wall between investment banks and retail banks.

Mr. Robinson was perhaps best known to the public for his role in the epic $25 billion battle for control of RJR Nabisco in 1988 and his dismissal by disgruntled shareholders.

In the Nabisco episode, an Amex investment firm, Shearson Lehman Hutton, was the financier of an RJR Nabisco management group that sought to gain control of the company in a bidding war that was ultimately won by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company.

“I was a facilitator trying to bring the parties together,” Mr. Robinson said in an interview for this obituary in 2016.

That acquisition was the largest corporate deal ever for nearly a decade and was called by some the pinnacle of a new Gilded Age.

The battle was chronicled in Bryan Burrough and John Helyar’s 1989 best-selling book, “Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco.” The book was the basis of a 1993 HBO film in which Mr. Robinson was played by Fred D. Thompson, who later became a U.S. Senator from Tennessee.

Mr. Robinson’s career was most defined by the fact that he placed American Express at the forefront of the business boundaries that his era was pushing.

“We coined the term ‘diversified financial services industry,’” Mr. Robinson said in the interview in his Midtown Manhattan office (where an abstract Frank Sinatra painting hung on the wall).

During his tenure, the American Express travel and payment card empire expanded to include Shearson Lehman Hutton; First Data Corporation, a payments group; Investors Diversified Services, an investment fund; and the Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company. American Express also operated an international bank.

Mr. Robinson made an unsuccessful bid for the McGraw-Hill Publishing Company in 1978 and at one point considered acquiring the Walt Disney Company.

But the prosperity of the late 1980s and early 1990s turned into what he called a “dark period,” when the stock market and real estate industry collapsed and merchants, in what became known as the “Boston Fee Party,” nationwide revolted against the high costs. of accepting American Express cards.

The uprising forced the company to lower its so-called discount rate (about 4 percent per transaction) to match that of its credit card competitors, which charged a third of that rate.

Dissatisfied shareholders and directors forced Mr Robinson to resign in 1993, at the age of 57.

Within a year, he and his son and Stuart J. Ellman founded RRE Ventures, a New York venture capital firm that invests in new information technology companies.

His departure from American Express came a decade after he presided over the pressured departure of Sanford I. Weill, the Wall Street titan whose securities empire was absorbed by American Express under Robinson.

The brash, Brooklyn-born Mr. Weill, who started his career on Wall Street as a messenger, and Mr. Robinson, a patrician from Georgia, were a culturally odd couple. When Mr. Weill’s proposal to buy Fireman’s Fund, which he ran, was rejected by Amex’s board, he decided he had to leave.

Mr. Weill found Mr. Robinson bureaucratic and indecisive. But in the 2016 interview, Mr. Robinson challenged the widely held belief that Mr. Weill was the risk-taker and that he was risk-averse. In fact, Mr. Robinson claimed, “it was the opposite.”

James Dixon Robinson III – also known as ‘Jimmy three sticks’ because of his use of Roman numerals – was born on November 19, 1935 in Atlanta, the son of James Dixon Robinson Jr. And Josephine (Crawford) Robinson. The son and grandson of prominent Georgia bankers (his father was chairman of the First National Bank of Atlanta), he grew up with two sisters in the city’s affluent Buckhead section.

A neighbor, celebrated golfer Bobby Jones, inspired Jimmy to take up the game at age 8, tipping occasionally. His 2016 curriculum vitae listed seven golf club memberships, including Augusta National (founded by Jones), and nine former golf club memberships.

After attending Woodberry Forest, a private school in Virginia, Mr. Robinson enrolled as a day student at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he studied industrial management. After graduating in 1957, he joined the Navy, which assigned him as a pay officer or paymaster at the nuclear submarine base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. In the meantime, he took correspondence courses at the New York Stock Exchange. That same year he married Bettye Bradley, with whom he had two children.

After resigning in 1959, Mr. Robinson enrolled at Harvard Business School and received an MBA in 1961. He began his business career at Morgan Guaranty Trust Company and after five years was named assistant to the CEO, Thomas S. Gates Jr. .

In 1968, Mr. Robinson became a partner at White Weld & Company, where he developed an interest in venture capital. He joined American Express in 1970 as an executive vice president, recruited by Eugene R. Black Sr., an Atlanta native, Amex executive and former head of the World Bank. Mr. Robinson became president in 1975 and chairman and chief executive officer in 1977.

He also served as chairman and CEO of Shearson Lehman Brothers, the brokerage subsidiary of American Express.

He resigned in early 1993 after a boardroom row over his continued employment. Major shareholders sought his ouster. The Times reported that he left behind a company with “crumbling morale,” erratic profits and losses, and a falling stock price. Analysts, investors, some board members and even his predecessor, Howard L. Clark Sr., had turned against him.

His marriage to Ms. Bradley ended in 1983 after she suffered a disabling brain aneurysm, he said, and filed for divorce.

In 1984 he married Linda Gossena high-profile PR manager who later advised him during the RJR Nabisco battle. She is the daughter of Freeman F. Gosden, co-creator and voice of the radio program “Amos ‘n’ Andy.” As he became active in philanthropies and fundraising for Republican candidates, Mr. Robinson and his wife became prominent members of a glittering New York social scene, living at the famously exclusive address of 778 Park Avenue.

He is survived by his wife; his two children from his first marriage, James IV and Emily Cook; two children from his second marriage, Nicholas and Olivia Robinson; his sister, Frances Huber; and six grandchildren. Mr. Robinson lived on Park Avenue in Manhattan.

Asked at age 80 when he planned to retire, Mr. Robinson said, “Three years after I’m dead.” He added that if his dreams of technological advancement came true, “I might be able to make that happen.”

Robert D. Hershey Jr.a reporter who spent years covering Wall Street finances and economics for The Times, died in January. Alex Traub reporting contributed.

North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson secured the Republican nomination for governor on Tuesday, continuing his meteoric political rise in a key battleground state.

Robinson, 55, is now set to face his Democratic opponent, North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein, in the November general election. Both men would be groundbreaking if elected: Mr. Robinson would be the first black governor, while Mr. Stein, 57, would be the first Jewish governor.

Mr. Robinson has built a reputation as a political stickler and paved his way to the executive mansion in Raleigh, in part through incendiary comments on social issues that have mobilized his Trump-aligned base and rebuffed Democrats.

Here are five things you need to know about Mr. Robinson.

His political career was fueled by online support.

On April 3, 2018, the Greensboro, NC, city council considered canceling a gun show after facing public outcry following the mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 people dead at a high school.

Mr. Robinson, who grew up in Greensboro, about 75 miles northwest of Raleigh, was outraged by the cancellation. He gave a speech at the council meeting that evening, and videos of it circulated widely in conservative circles and were viewed millions of times.

“We want our rights, and we want to keep our rights,” Mr. Robinson said said at the meeting. “And by God, we’re going to keep them, come hell or high water.”

He was invited to speak at gun meetings and then left his job in furniture manufacturing.

He made history as the first black lieutenant governor of North Carolina.

Bolstered by his image as a political outsider and advocate for gun rights, Mr. Robinson ran for lieutenant governor in 2020. His win made him the first Black person in North Carolina to hold the position.

It was the first elected office he had ever held, and the position raised his profile. But he had little influence on policy. Mr. Robinson and Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, have had an acrimonious relationship and have not worked closely together.

The lieutenant governor in North Carolina presides over the Senate, but has no vote unless the Senate is evenly divided, similar to the vice president of the United States.

His upbringing was difficult.

Mr. Robinson has said that growing up poor in Greensboro shaped his political philosophy. He wrote in his autobiography “We Are The Majority!” that his father was an alcoholic and abusive to his mother, and that his parents relied on government assistance to support their ten children. Mr. Robinson was the second youngest.

“Even as a child I felt the imbalance, the wrongness of it,” Mr. Robinson wrote of the abuse. “At a young age I started thinking about the world in terms of what is fair or unfair, right or wrong.”

Like former President Donald J. Trump, Mr. Robinson has also expressed anger at the North American Free Trade Agreement, which in the 1990s caused manufacturing jobs to shift from North Carolina to states with lower labor costs. Mr Robinson has said he has lost two jobs as a result of the trade pact.

His wife had an abortion decades ago, and it has shaped his views on the issue.

Mr. Robinson supports a so-called heartbeat law, which would ban abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy, when many women do not yet realize they are pregnant.

Such a measure would roll back abortion rights in North Carolina: Republicans used their new supermajority in the legislature last year to ban most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy.

Mr. Robinson’s campaign spokesman said Mr. Robinson supported exceptions for rape, incest or when the mother’s life was in danger. But the spokesperson did not specify after how many weeks these protections would apply.

Mr. Robinson has publicly discussed how his wife, Yolanda Robinson, had an abortion in 1989, a year before they married. The couple later had two children.

Mr Robinson said in a Facebook video in 2022 that the couple’s decision to have an abortion had been ‘wrong’ and that this had been the catalyst for the couple’s anti-abortion views that later developed.

He has long espoused anti-LGBTQ views.

Since gaining a political platform, and even before that on his personal Facebook page, Mr. Robinson has hurled disparaging comments at the LGBTQ community, anchoring his attacks in his Christian faith.

He has said that it makes him sick when he sees a church flying the rainbow flag, describing this as a “spitting directly in the face of God.” He also told a congregation that “there is no reason why anyone anywhere in America should have to tell a child about transgenderism, homosexuality or any of that filth.”

In February, Mr. Robinson said transgender women who use women’s restrooms “will be arrested,” following the so-called bathroom bill that state lawmakers passed in 2016. That measure proved unpopular due to its negative economic effects, and Mr. Cooper signed legislation repealing it in 2017.

North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson defeated his two challengers in the Republican primary for the governor’s race on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press. His victory proved that his roaring, Trump-centric style is favored by conservatives preparing for what will likely be the most expensive and contentious statewide race.

Mr. Robinson had consistently maintained a significant lead over his opponents, Dale Folwell, the state treasurer, and Bill Graham, a personal injury and wrongful death attorney. Now he will face Josh Stein, the Democratic attorney general, whose policies mirror those of Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat who is popular but term-limited.

Mr. Robinson’s appointment marked another success in what has been a remarkable rise for the lieutenant governor: In 2018, he worked in furniture manufacturing. A year later, after gaining national attention in conservative circles with a video criticizing gun control at a public rally in Greensboro, he entered the race for lieutenant governor.

Now, four years after being elected as a statewide political firebrand and upstart, Mr. Robinson is barreling toward the executive mansion in Raleigh with a brand of conservatism that focuses on culture war issues, testing how far right the North -Caroijnen are prepared to go. in their purple state.

Mr. Robinson has characterized the civil rights movement as a communist and socialist plot to “undermine capitalism,” promised to arrest transgender women using women’s restrooms and said Christians are “called to be led by men.” He has disparaged the LGBTQ community, made comments widely seen as anti-Semitic and called for discussions of racism to be limited in public schools.

Mr. Robinson’s rhetoric will focus attention on North Carolina, which many say is crucial to winning the presidency.

Democratic leaders in the state hope Mr. Robinson’s controversial comments will drive Democrats to the polls and help them win over swing voters. But some Republican strategists believe Mr. Robinson’s personality will energize the base and boost their own turnout.

Mr. Robinson supports a so-called heartbeat law, which would ban abortion after about five or six weeks of pregnancy; such a ban would go further than current state law, which restricts abortion after 12 weeks. His campaign spokesman said Mr. Robinson supports exceptions for rape, incest or when the mother’s life is in danger, but he gave no details.

A 45-year-old Kansas man has been charged with stealing a life-size bronze statue of baseball legend Jackie Robinson from a park in Wichita, Kan. Police in Wichita said Tuesday that the motive for the crime was likely to sell the statue for scrap metal.

The man, Ricky Alderete, was charged Monday with theft, aggravated criminal damage to property and providing false information, police said.

Lt. Aaron Moses of the Wichita Police Department said the investigation continued, but concerns that the statue's theft could have been racially motivated had been put to rest.

“The investigation did not reveal any evidence to indicate this was a hate-motivated crime,” Lt. Moses said. “Instead, we believe this theft was motivated by the financial gain of scrapping base metals.”

Mr. Alderate remained in custody on Tuesday and a lawyer representing him could not immediately be reached for comment.

Nearly the entire 275-pound statue of Robinson disappeared from McAdams Park in Wichita in January. Only the shoes at the foot of the statue were left behind.

Police later found surveillance video showing a truck parked near the statue as it was cut down and placed on the bed of the truck. The car was later found at an apartment complex, police said.

Pieces of the statue were found several days later by a city worker in a burning trash can in another Wichita park. The statue was deemed damaged beyond repair.

Its estimated value was $75,000, according to League 42, a nonprofit that installed the statue in 2021. Following the theft, a GoFundMe campaign in support of League 42 raised nearly $200,000.

Robinson, who played for the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro Leagues, later broke the color barrier when he became the first black player to play in Major League Baseball.

Wichita City Councilman Brandon Johnson said he hoped the arrest in the case would send a message to the community, which was outraged by the statue's disappearance.

“This is an event that should not have happened,” Mr Johnson said. “Hopefully this is a testament to anyone thinking about doing something like this in the future.”

Chief Joe Sullivan of the Wichita Police Department said Mr. Alderate's arrest was not the end of the case.

“If you try to take anything away from this community, it will not tolerate it,” he said. “I am convinced that this is only the first arrest and that there will be more to come.”

Parts of a life-size bronze statue honoring the legacy of legendary baseball player and civil rights figure Jackie Robinson were found dismantled and burned early Tuesday after it was stolen from a Kansas park last week, authorities said.

Remains of the statue were found after a city worker reported a fire in a trash bin in Wichita's Garvey Park around 8:38 a.m., Andrew Ford, a police spokesman, said in a statement.

The Wichita Fire Department responded and “while assessing the damage, they found pieces of the Jackie Robinson statue that had been stolen.”

The fire department immediately notified police, who collected the pieces from the scene, he said, noting that “unfortunately the statue is beyond repair.”

Police are continuing to investigate, Mr. Ford said, and they have “already interviewed more than 100 people.” The department is also investigating how the statue was dismantled and how the pieces ended up at the site of the fire. Mr. Ford had previously said the motive for the monument's theft was unknown.

In addition, fire department arson investigators are investigating the dumpster fire, he said. In a statement Posted on Facebook, the department said that “additional portions of the statue have not been recovered at this time.”

The statue had an estimated value of $75,000, according to League 42, the Little League nonprofit that had it installed in McAdams Park in April 2021.

The incident has sparked outrage in the community, said Bob Lutz, the executive director of League 42, which is recording it name for the song Robinson wore, said during an interview on Tuesday.

“People want justice to be served,” he said. “No one can understand why this would happen.”

Robinson, the first black player in Major League Baseball, became a symbol of hope for racial equality in the country when he broke baseball's color barrier in 1947. After retiring from baseball, he continued to work on civil rights issues and continued to break barriers in advertising, broadcasting and business.

There are still many questions in the community about who could be behind the statue's destruction. Mr. Lutz said Garvey Park is “on the other side of town,” about a seven mile drive of the park where the statue had stood.

The police had surveillance images of the theft available on Thursday morning. The video shows at least two people cutting down the statue and placing it in the back of a truck that was discreetly parked near the statue, Mr. Ford said. At the time, he declined to specify what tool was used to cut the statue.

The nonprofit can now turn its attention to replacing the statue, Mr. Lutz said, a lengthy process that will take six months. He added that the group's members “look forward to the arrest of the people who did it in the very near future.”

League 42 will be able to replace the statue because “we created the mold” to represent Robinson, Mr. Lutz said, and a GoFundMe account has been set up by the organization to cover the costs of creating a new statue.

Practices for the organization's hundreds of players begin on March 11, and the season officially kicks off on April 15, which happens to be Jackie Robinson Day.

“I'm so excited to get our kids on the baseball field, and that's always the case,” Mr. Lutz said. “We played for seven years without a Jackie statue, but his spirit was always with us, and we may miss the physical presence of that statue, but we will be inspired to know it will be replaced.”

He went on to say that Robinson's message “has never sounded louder or truer.”

Authorities in Kansas are looking for the vandals who stole a life-size bronze statue commemorating Jackie Robinson, the first black Major League Baseball player, after cutting it off at the ankles and leaving only the statue's shoes and foot had left behind.

Police in Wichita were notified of the theft around 12:50 a.m. Thursday after receiving a call from League 42, the Little League nonprofit that installed the statue in McAdams Park, Andrew Ford, a police spokesman, said Saturday.

He estimated that the statue weighed at least 100 pounds.

“I don't know what the motivation is,” Mr. Ford said. “All considerations are being explored.”

Mr. Ford said police had surveillance footage showing the statue being cut down and placed in the back of a truck that was being pulled up or parked “at least in a way where it could be, you know, discreetly hidden.”

He said at least two people were believed to be involved. Mr Ford said the theft happened early on Thursday morning. He declined to specify what the image was cut with, saying that was part of the investigation.

Robinson, who had been a young star with the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro Leagues, broke the color barrier and became the first black player to play in Major League Baseball when he stepped onto Ebbets Field in his debut for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15 . , 1947.

Robinson became a symbol of hope for racial equality in the country. After retiring from baseball, he continued to work on civil rights issues and broke barriers in advertising, broadcasting and business.

Mr. Robinson “used his prestige as a star athlete to build support for the civil rights movement.” according to the Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute. Dr. King said Robinson 'made my success possible' according to the Baseball Hall of Fame. “Without him I would never have been able to do what I did.”

Bob Lutz, the executive director of League 42, takes his name for the song Robinson said it was a challenge to erect the statue because the group had to raise money and needed permission to use his name and likeness.

The statue, which has an estimated value of $75,000, was installed in April 2021, he said.

Mr. Lutz said he believed the theft was an isolated incident and had no idea what a motive for the theft might be.

“I am hopeful that this was a purely ignorant decision made by ignorant people,” he said. “That they didn't know any better.”

Wichita Police Chief Joe Sullivan said during a press conference On Friday, he said he was “frustrated by the actions of those individuals who had the audacity to take the statue,” noting that the theft occurred just before February, Black History Month.

“Our city wants the statue back,” the chief said. “We also want the individuals who robbed our community of treasure to be held accountable for their actions, and I assure you they will.”