Remembering Martha Robuck, Vice President of Consumables

Martha Robuck, the Exchange vice president of consumables who passed away May 26 at age 62, had extensive retail experience when she came to the Exchange in 2007. But with her patriotism and her desire to give back, she found a true work home in the Exchange, where she spent nearly 17 years serving those who serve and have served.

“She liked the patriotic aspect of the Exchange,” said her husband, Greg Robuck. “She saw recruits coming in with a will to help their country. We’re both big believers in the United States and patriotism. Martha would see recruits come in and know that they were committed to something more than making money. She was all about service to her country and service to her community.”

Family and Exchange teammates remember Robuck for her fair treatment of everyone, regardless of position or rank; for her tenacity and resilience; and for a passion for caring and giving back that endured well after her workdays ended. She and Greg were heavily involved in their three children’s swim meets, triathlons, soccer games, Scouts, church events and more. She was also active in many volunteer projects, especially in the fight to end breast cancer.

She embodied an Exchange core value: Respect everyone.

“It wasn’t just that she respected the generals and the bigwigs,” Greg said. “It was the entry-level people, the recruits, who she respected because of the way they jumped in and wanted to do good for the country. She always respected them as much as she respected the generals. It was like when we went to restaurants: She would just as soon talk with the waitresses as the owner. She just had respect for the common man.”

A life in retail

Robuck worked in retail most of her life, starting at age 13, when she applied for a job at a Beall’s department store near her home in San Antonio, Texas. She accepted a position that paid $2 hour for folding clothes. While she was still a teen, she moved on to Dillard’s, where she worked after school while attending San Antonio’s McCollum High.

After graduating from St. Mary’s University in San Antonio with a bachelor’s degree in marketing management, Robuck joined JCPenney in Dallas as a junior buyer. She went on to work at National Spirit Group and Harold’s Stores before joining the Exchange in 2007 as a manager in Planning, Allocation and Replenishment (PAR), which launched that year.

“She lit up a room,” said Executive Vice President/Chief Merchandising Officer Eric Sidman, who was part of the team that interviewed her for the position. “Her resume spoke about how smart she was and how much experience she had, but you also need to know whether someone is going to fit inside the culture of the organization and be a positive force. You only had to spend five minutes with her to know she was somebody you wanted as part of your team.”

Tammie Shelmire, currently vice president of store experience and design, joined Sidman and Hunter Cole (now vice president of third-party merchandising), in interviewing and hiring Robuck. Shelmire had been with the Exchange three days when the interview took place. Her background also included JC Penney, where she and Robuck had mutual acquaintances but had not crossed each other’s paths.

Martha Robuck at the kickoff of the Exchange’s 2022 Express Seminar, which was the Exchange’s first in-person conference after the peak COVID-19 era.

“She was full of life,” Shelmire said. “You could just see her intelligence in her answers to the interview, plus a personality that was ‘can-do.’ She would make something work. Since this was the start of PAR, we were looking for people who had good merchandising backgrounds and analytical skills and she had that personality that made you know she was going to be a great leader.”

Karen Cardin, the Exchange’s recently retired EVP/CMO who joined the organization in 1992, was also an early manager on the PAR team and worked closely with Robuck throughout her Exchange career.

“She was willing to share her experiences, which helped make things smoother as we transitioned to this new way of doing business,” Cardin said. “She was courageous and strong. She was diagnosed with breast cancer six or seven months after we became PAR managers. She underwent chemo and came in and worked. I don’t know how she did it, but she was a pillar of strength. She wasn’t going to let that beat her. Not only was she kind, but if there was an obstacle, she was going to overcome it.”

Robuck spent her Exchange career in Merchandising, becoming a divisional merchandise manager for Military Clothing in 2010. She was softlines PAR director from 2011 to 2015, hardlines PAR director from 2015 to 2018, PAR planning director from 2018 to July 2020, when she was promoted to vice president of Softlines.

She assumed her most recent role in March 2021. It was a pivotal time for the Exchange’s Express convenience stores, which she oversaw: Retail business was still struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic, but foot traffic was about to return as vaccines became available.

In 2022, Robuck led the first in-person Express Seminar since 2019, giving the opening remarks and presenting awards to stores and vendors. She led two more seminars, including a 2024 one that concluded less than two weeks before she passed.

“I will miss her greatly,” Shelmire said. “And the Exchange will miss her. It was just too soon.”

‘She gave and gave all day long’

Martha and Greg met at a Christmas party at a boxing club.

“Nobody was boxing,” Greg Robuck says. “It was just a place to meet. I’d gone there with a friend, and I met Martha there. I got her phone number and we moved on from there.”

They married on Feb. 29, 1992—Leap Day. “It was one of the few days we could get the Dallas Arboretum, which is a beautiful outdoor facility, for the ceremony,” Greg says. “We always joked about the fact that we only had an anniversary every four years. We were married 32 years but we had eight anniversaries.”

Along with her community service, she was also active at Dallas’ Good Shepherd Episcopal Church, where she was proud to serve two terms on the vestry. Despite her busy Exchange schedule, she always found time for her family and for supporting others away from work.

“She gave and gave all day long,” Greg said. “I never could figure out what her energy source was. She’d get up first thing in the morning, work all day and help our community, friends and especially our family. She’d go till late at night and then start all over again the next day. She had a real strong will to do that.”

Greg says that the family will continue Martha’s mission to raise money for the fight against breast cancer.

“We plan to do a rally of some sort to raise money,” he said, adding that a date is still to be determined. “She raised about 20 grand over a couple of years. We all did, together, as kind of a Team Martha. That was as important to her as any meeting at AAFES.”

Besides her husband Greg, Martha Robuck is survived by her stepson Spencer of Denton, Texas; her son Mead and wife Mckenzie of Dallas; her daughter, Kelsey (who is a replenishment and inventory analyst on the PAR team) of Dallas; her brother Bernest H. Cain of Oklahoma City; her brother David L. Cain of San Antonio; and her sister Bernetta C. Haden of San Antonio.

You can view her official obituary here.