At 90, Skillman’s Jim Robinson Still Sweet on the Craft That Built a Community

Nicholas Mistretta

MONTGOMERY TOWNSHIP, NJ — On Monday, March 23, Jim Robinson turned 90 years old. By most measures, it would be a milestone marked by reflection and rest. For Robinson, it was just another day doing what he has done for nearly half a century—making chocolate, greeting customers, and quietly continuing a legacy that has become woven into the fabric of the Montgomery community. Robinson is the founder of Robinson’s Chocolate, a beloved local business he opened with his late wife, Nancy, in January of 1979. The couple signed the lease for their shop the year prior, seizing an opportunity that, in many ways, had been decades in the making.

A Craft Learned the Hard Way
Robinson’s path into the chocolate business began long before Montgomery. His father was a candy maker in South Jersey, and as a young boy, Robinson learned the trade at his side. It was not an easy apprenticeship.“He was very difficult to work for,” Robinson has said of his father. “If you made even one mistake, you were gone.” But the discipline and precision required in those early years left a lasting impression. More importantly, it planted the seed of an idea—one his father would later encourage him to pursue on his own.

A Leap of Faith in Montgomery
Years later, while visiting Jim and Nancy, Robinson’s father urged him to open his own shop. The couple began looking locally but found no available space—until a clothing store in Skillman closed its doors.

Robinson acted quickly. At the time, he was working as an account manager for Herr’s Snacks. Still, he and Nancy took the leap, opening Robinson’s Chocolate together in early 1979. What began as a modest storefront would, over time, grow into a cherished destination.

It wasn’t immediate. “It took a few years to build the business,” Robinson recalled. “But once it happened, it really took off.”

Weathering the Hard Times
Like many small businesses, Robinson’s Chocolate faced its share of challenges. One of the most difficult came when a nearby anchor store, Foodtown, closed. Foot traffic dropped sharply, and the future of the business became uncertain.

Help arrived from an unexpected place. A friend and neighbor, John Aubert, who worked for Bloomberg, approached Robinson with an idea—corporate gifting. Supplying chocolates for Bloomberg opened an entirely new revenue stream.

“That literally saved us,” Robinson said.

A Family Effort, A Lasting Legacy
Throughout it all, Robinson was never alone. He and Nancy were married for 55 years before her passing in 2017, and the business they built together remains a testament to that partnership.

Their daughter, Pattie, grew up in the shop, working there as a high school student. In 2010, she returned to help, balancing a full-time corporate career by day with nights and weekends behind the counter.

“It was exhausting,” she said.

In 2024, Pattie made the decision to leave her corporate job and join the business full time—continuing the family tradition her parents began.

That same spirit of growth carried into a new chapter last year, when an opportunity arose in nearby Hillsborough. After the closure of Heavenly Sweets, the Robinson family stepped in, taking over the lease and existing candy infrastructure—something Jim Robinson had long considered but never pursued until the right moment arrived.

No Plans to Slow Down
At 90, Robinson remains a daily presence in the business. He still makes the chocolate himself, relying on the same techniques he learned as a boy and refined over a lifetime.

Retirement, he says, is not part of the plan. For generations of customers, Robinson’s Chocolate is more than a shop—it is a place of tradition, memory, and craftsmanship. For Robinson, it is simply his life’s work. And even at 90, he’s still showing up—one batch at a time.

Photo Credit: Nicholas Mistretta/headlinenewsmontgomery.com