“Hey, get off that phone and go to work!” A young woman in scrubs looks up, waves and laughs goodnaturedly as she does every day when she passes Billy Robinson’s security post on the corner of Caroline and Jefferson streets.
For the past 44 years, “Bizzo”—as he’s been called since age 4—has said whatever comes to mind to bring a smile to employees’ faces as they go about their day. He came to Baltimore in the summer of 1972 from his grandfather’s farm in Jacksonville, North Carolina, and was hired on the spot for a security position at The Johns Hopkins Hospital.
Since then, he has delivered a baby on the sidewalk, held the hand of an Air Force colonel as he took his last breath, and was offered—and turned down—a position as Michael Jackson’s personal bodyguard, all while helping keep the hospital campus safe.
Perhaps what stand out most are the interactions he’s had with students who attended Paul Laurence Dunbar Elementary and High schools across the street from his post.
“As you go through life, if you’re not helping or encouraging somebody, you’re not really doing anything,” says Bizzo, who considers himself a “people person.”
One student told Bizzo every day on his way home from elementary school that he wanted to be a policeman when hegrew up. Always supportive of students’ dreams, Bizzo would reply, “Hang in there, and I’ll look to see you in uniform one day.” Nearly 30 years later, retired Baltimore City Police Department Officer Elfago Moye was hired at Johns Hopkins as director of external security and stopped by Bizzo’s security post to see his childhood idol. His reaction? “Man, that’s you? Now you’re my boss; I’m glad I treated you nice all those years!”
Bizzo is always surprised when people remember him. Adults who remember Bizzo from their school-age years greet him like a childhood friend. Nurses have stopped to thank him for encouraging them to not skip high school and to graduate, which allowed them to pursue nursing.
“People go to venues like malls, stadiums and movie complexes because they look forward to that experience, but they come to a health care institution because they have to,” says George Economas, senior director of corporate security. “We stress customer service because we can make or break someone’s day by how we greet them.”