Robin Rosalie Foss of Loveland, Colorado passed away on June 14, 2025, after a brief hospitalization at Medical Center of the Rockies and release into hospice care at Pathways Inpatient Care Center in Fort Collins, Colorado. Her family was with her and were able to reminisce with and comfort her in the days leading up to her passing.

Born Robin Rosalie Brooks on June 25, 1944, in Santa Ana, California to Jackson R. and Jacqueline L. Brooks, who preceded her in death, she spent the early years of her childhood there and her fondest childhood memories were of spending her 12th summer with her grandparents Jack and Josephine “Jo” Munson in Chinook, Washington, enjoying fishing on the mouth of the Columbia River with grandpa and digging clams and picking wild berries with grandma. Robin was the oldest of four children, and in early 1955 she moved with her family from Santa Ana to Fort Collins where she finished growing up and graduated from Fort Collins High School in 1962. While in high school, Robin was a soprano in A Cappella choir, a member of the Dramatic and French clubs, a member of the Junior Red Cross, and received an Industry Recognized Credential (I.R.C.). She was a gifted singer, lettering in Vocal Music and, shortly after graduating high school, competed and took 2nd place in the 1962 “Miss Fort Collins” pageant with her performance of George Gershwin’s “Summertime”. Her favorite genre of music was jazz, especially from the Big Band era, and passed along her lifelong passion for music to her children and grandchildren.

After high school, Robin enrolled and successfully completed three classes in the fall of 1962 at Colorado State University. She married Frederick “Freddie” J. Foss of Fort Collins in January 1963, and they welcomed the first of their three sons Frederick “Fritz” J. Foss II that summer. After moving to College Station, Texas in the fall of 1965  to support her husband as he worked toward a graduate degree at Texas A&M University after his commission to the United States Air Force, Robin moved with her growing family first to Vandenburg A.F.B. in California, giving birth to her son Steven J. Foss in the fall of 1966, then to Ramey A.F.B. in Puerto Rico, giving birth to her son Robert B. Foss in the summer of 1968. After moving back to Fort Collins in the spring of 1971, Robin continued raising her sons, enjoying singing in her church choir and being close to extended family again. She was a lifelong Christian and, In her youth and her younger adult life, she was an active member of Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church in Fort Collins, singing the Lord’s praise with her heavenly voice. She moved again with her family to Cheyenne, Wyoming in the fall of 1973, enrolling and successfully completing several classes at Laramie County Community College in the spring of 1974, before moving with her family back to Fort Collins in the fall of 1974.

In January 1976, Robin moved with her family to Ocean Springs, Mississippi after her husband was stationed at Keesler A.F.B. in Biloxi. She worked for the Ocean Springs School District as a school bus driver and enrolled and successfully completed 21 semester hours of classes during the summer and fall 1978 terms at Gulf Coast Community College in Gautier, Mississippi. She enlisted in the United States Air Force Reserves on January 16, 1979, joining the 920 TAC Clinic at Keesler A.F.B. as a medical laboratory technician. She moved with her family back to Fort Collins in late summer 1980, joining the 140 TAC Hospital, Colorado Air National Guard at Buckley Air National Guard Base on October 22, 1980. In April 1988, at the rank of Technical Sergeant, she was awarded the Air Reserve Forces Meritorious Service Medal, and in May 1989 graduated and was awarded a diploma from the Command Noncommissioned Officer Academy’s Correspondence Program. In January 1991, she was mobilized to active duty and deployed to Holloman A.F.B. outside of Alamogordo, New Mexico in support of Operations Desert Shield/Storm, receiving the National Defense Service Medal for her service in the campaign. Between summer of 1979 and spring of 1992, Robin completed 50 semester hours of course work from the Community College of the Air Force, together with 15 hours of transfer credit from Gulf Coast Community College, for a combined total of 65 of the 67 hours required to obtain her Community College of the Air Force associate’s degree in medical laboratory technology. Robin served honorably for 20 years in the roles of medical laboratory specialist and technician, First Sergeant, and medical administrative superintendent, retiring as a veteran with the rank of Senior Master Sergeant on January 16, 1999.

Robin was also an accomplished medical professional during her civilian working career. She received formal medical diagnostic ultrasound training under the mentorship of Marveen Craig, AA, RMDS, FSDMS, a pioneering diagnostic ultrasonographer and founder of the International Ultrasound Institute in Dallas, Texas. In November 1980, at the invitation of noted veterinary neurosurgeon Dr. Steve Colter, she joined the medical staff at the Veterinary Teaching Hospital at Colorado State University and became one of only a few practitioners nationwide with both human and veterinary diagnostic ultrasound training and expertise. In October 1982, Robin and her colleagues took first place at the Annual National Medical Ultrasound Convention and meeting of the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine in Denver for their paper and the exhibit she designed on the usefulness of ultrasound in veterinary medicine. She subsequently joined the medical staff at Poudre Valley Hospital, splitting time there with time at the vet school.  She was interviewed in February 1983 for an article appearing in the Fort Collins Coloradoan showcasing her special cross-species diagnostic skills. In October 1984, she took and passed a rigorous set of registry exams to become a credentialed member of the American Registry of Diagnostic Medical Sonographers (RDMS) and continued to work as a diagnostic ultrasonographer at Poudre Valley Hospital and then Fort Collins Women’s Clinic as Chief Sonographer, where she became an editor of OB-GYN Ultrasound Today and the lead author of a two-part 1996 article therein entitled “Transvaginal Examination of First-Trimester Bleeding”. Although Robin’s career in human and veterinary ultrasound was quite fulfilling after helping countless patients, it left her disabled due to repetitive stress injuries associated with doing her job and she retired on disability in July 2001.

Robin is survived by her three sons and families including 8 grandchildren, her younger siblings Barbara Haynie, Jennifer Brooks, and Brian Brooks and their families, several members of her extended family and their families, and her cat Squeaky (who she adored and has a new home with her son Steve and his family). Robin had a keen mind and great sense of humor throughout her life and loved her time with family and friends, reminiscing and laughing about memories they shared. She loved animals and devoted part of her career and resources to helping them. She was dearly loved and is dearly missed.

A memorial service remembering Robin is being planned, the details for which will be announced separately. Robin was a supporter of Larimer Humane Society, Food Bank for Larimer County, American Humane Society, and the National Wildlife Federation. Please consider donating to any of these in honor of her life.