Robinson penned Lou Gehrig bio

NEW YORK — Ray Robinson, an author and magazine editor best known for a well-regarded biography of his childhood hero Lou Gehrig, has died.

Robinson’s friend Marty Appel said Friday that Robinson died Oct. 31 at New York Hospital. Robinson was 96 and had suffered a stroke.

A Manhattan native, Robinson was at Yankee Stadium on July 4, 1939, when the first baseman gave his famous “luckiest man” retirement speech. Robinson attended Columbia University, Gehrig’s alma mater. Robinson graduated in 1941, the day after Gehrig died of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the crippling disease now named for him.

Robinson’s Gehrig biography The Iron Horse was published in 1990. Robinson also wrote books about Christy Mathewson and Knute Rockne.