This biography takes Robert from his childhood in South Carolina to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1857 then under the leadership of Robert E. Lee. Robert was trained as an Engineer and graduated 4th in his class at West Point. He served in rough wilderness assignments in the Washington Territory, California and the Arizona Territory. His story takes the reader through his experiences during the Civil was that led him in the direction of writing his famous Rules of Order.

His life was much more, however, than engineering and parliamentary law. He was a devoted family man, a pious church man, a social advocate for “fallen women” and for Chinese immigrants. His life spans the turbulent years between the Civil War and World War II including his service as a Commissioner of the District of Columbia and a member of the first Rock Creek National Park Board.

His Pocket Manual of Parliamentary Procedure was published in 1876 and rapidly became the standard for parliamentary procedure in the United States. The book, designed for laymen rather than members of professional legislatures, it so widely used today as to truly constitute THE parliamentary law of the nation.

This biography has been commissioned by the National Association of Parliamentarians in the hope that scholars of American History and those interested in parliamentary procedure will find in its pages the life of a man who was “The Writer of the Rules, An American Hero.”

Joseph O'Brien