In Memory
Alyce Marie (Kwiecinski) Robertson
September 14, 1955 - June 18, 2021
Alyce Marie Robertson, a longtime local government employee who successfully led her adopted Miami and Miami-Dade County through good times and bad, lovingly referred to as "Queen Alyce", passed away at home Friday, June 18, 2021 after a three-year battle with cancer.
Alyce was born September 14, 1955 to Marvin and Mary Ann Kwiecinski in South Bend, Indiana, the second of seven children, and began a life dedicated to looking after others. Alyce was generous with her time and money. She was devoted to family, Miami, and the environment, pretty much in that order.
Alyce earned bachelor's degree in Spanish and Portuguese and a master's degree in public administration from Indiana University, and spent a year in Brazil perfecting her Portuguese. She moved to Miami 1979 for an internship program with Miami-Dade County starting at the bottom and working her way up to a 40-plus year career in government. She was shamelessly pursued by lawyer, Neil Robertson, who kept finding excuses to drop by her office and invite her to lunch. She ignored him until he was dating someone else, then Alyce announced she was going to marry him. They married May 24, 1986 and just celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary, serenaded by a mariachi band on the balcony of their Miami home. He continues to proudly be known as "Mr. Alyce Robertson".
When Hurricane Andrew threatened in 1992, Alyce packed up her two year old and spearheaded a caravan of neighborhood women and children down the shoulders of I-95 through bumper to bumper traffic to the safety of her mother-in-law's home in Tampa. She promptly put her mother-in-law—affectionally known as Sarge—in charge of the troops, left behind the luxury of air-conditioning and electricity, and returned to face the destruction caused by the most powerful hurricane to hit Miami in recent history to lend a hand to folks in need.
Alyce loved to honor her heritage, sharing the Polish holiday of Dyngus Day with 150-300 of her closest friends. Every year, the day after Easter Alyce and her family would crank out 80 pounds of home-make sausages, serve up pierogis, purchase kegs of beer, fire up the polka music, and celebrate the end of Lent. Alyce and her daughters would don traditional Polish costumes and teach everyone to dance.
Alyce lead many a Biscayne Bay clean up. In 2001, Alyce created Miami-Dade County's Adopt-A-Tree program. She was proud to tell everyone the program planted 215,500 trees in Miami-Dade County. Alyce was a strong proponent of tree canopy to help cool Miami's streets, and provide a natural habitat for wildlife. Alyce's own home is surrounded by Florida's native trees.
Alyce spent a lifetime in service to Miami-Dade County. She referred to herself as a 'can-do bureaucrat." She won so many awards that on her retirement in 2019, she required a truck to take them all home. The County Commission honored her with three separate "Alyce Robertson" days.
Alyce was an incredible mentor, one of her biggest legacies are the people she took under her wing, several of whom now hold high-level executive positions. Christina Crespi, Executive Director of the Miami Downtown Development Authority, Christina White, Supervisor of Elections, Ray Baker Director of the Miami Dade Library system and Javier Betancourt of the Citizens Independent Transportation Trust (CITT) for the Miami Dade County and many others. Alyce was very intuitive in that way. She just knew how to place people in positions to help them succeed. She was passionate about playing on people's strengths rather than their weaknesses.
Alyce was a visionary and came up with ideas and projects to help create a more pedestrian friendly downtown, and worked closely with developers and the community to bring energy and people back to our downtown. Major projects like the Flagler Street reconstruction project and the Miami Bay Walk came to fruition with her as a driving force. When she believed in something she did not stop until it was done and she always did it with a smile and always a little bit of laughter.
She did not shy away from hard issues either. Alyce was passionate about assisting our most vulnerable and worked closely with Judge Liefman on mental health issues to help the homeless in the urban core. She enhanced programs like the Downtown Enhancement team, which is a program that employs homeless individuals to help them get back on their feet.
Alyce was all about finding solutions to problems especially those that involve people. She took care of her own and she took care of her staff. She wanted to create a family like environment at the office and she did. Her office was filled with pictures of her daughters and artwork they created as toddlers. She was a wonderful loving mother. She raised two beautiful, tough, smart and respectable daughters. She taught those around her how important the work life balance was, that our families always came first and that it was ok to have a little fun to blow off steam to reduce the stress from a long day of work. She did not take life too seriously and just enjoyed the ride.
We will forever miss that smile.
Alyce is survived by her husband, Neil Robertson, daughters Anne Marie and Katherine Robertson, her sisters Diane Frye (Bart), Julie Wille (Petter), Ruth Berenzy (John), brothers Paul Kwiecinski (Lisa Murrell), David Kwiecinski (Faith), and Jim Kwiecinski (Lea) and 15 nieces and nephews.
Visitation is Sunday, June 27, 2021 4:00pm to 6:00pm at St. Joseph Funeral Home. The funeral service will be at the same location Monday, June 28 at 11:00am with burial to follow at St. Joseph Cemetery.
07.28.2022 djb
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