Robert "Bob" George Stanton was born on September 22, 1940 to Alvin Herbert and Bethel Lee Blackburn Stanton in Fort Worth, Texas. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in physical science (primarily chemistry and mathematics) from Huston-Tilloston College in Austin, Texas in 1963. Stanton did graduate work at the School of Mass Communication and Public Relations at Boston University in Boston, Massachusetts from 1963-1964 and Administrative Management at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. in 1968. He worked as a seasonal park ranger at Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming during the summers of 1962 and 1963. From 1964 to 1966 Stanton was the Director of Public Relations and Alumni Affairs at his alma mater, Huston-Tilloston College. In June 1966 he became the Personnel Management Specialist in the Division of Personnel at the National Park Service in Washington, D.C. In April 1968, in the same division, Stanton took the position of Personnel Staff Specialist. From 1969 to 1970 Stanton worked as the Management Assistant of the National Capital Parks-Central, Washington, D.C. He served as the Superintendent of the National Capital Parks-East, Washington, D.C and Maryland, from 1970 to 1971. In 1971 Stanton became the Superintendent of the Virgin Islands National Park. He was promoted to Deputy Regional Director of the Southeast Region of the National Park Service in Atlanta, Georgia in 1974. In 1976 he transferred to the National Park Service's headquarters in Washington, D.C. where he served as the Assistant Director of Resources Management and, later in the same year, he became the Assistant Director of Park Operations. In 1978 Stanton took the position of Deputy Regional Director of the National Capital Region, Washington, D.C., where he served until 1987 when he became the Assistant Director of Operations of the National Park Service in Washington, D.C. Stanton became the Regional Director of the National Capital Region, Washington, D.C., in 1988 where he worked till his retirement on January 3, 1997. President Bill Clinton nominated Stanton on June 26, 1997 to serve as Director of the National Park Service. His nomination was unanimously approved by the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on July 23, 1997, and was confirmed by the full U.S. Senate on July 31, 1997. Robert Stanton was sworn in as the 15^th Director of the National Park Service on August 4, 1997, and served in that position till January 20, 2001. Robert Stanton is the first African American in the history of the agency to hold that position.

After his long career with the National Park Service, Stanton worked as a private conservation consultant specializing in policy, planning and management. From 2001 to 2003 he served as the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources' World Commission on Protected Areas ambassador for the Fifth World Parks Congress held in September 2003 in Durban, South Africa. In the fall of 2002, Stanton was a Professor of the Practice of Conservation (Dorothy S. McCluskey Visiting Fellow for Conservation) at the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Since that time he continues as a research affiliate with the university. Since the fall of 2004, Robert Stanton works as a Visiting Adjunct Professor (Senior Fellow) in the Department of Recreation, Park & Tourism Sciences at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, where he heads the Leadership and Diversity Initiative, a program which focuses on minority and underrepresented communities relating to resource conservation and recreation, as well as how park services can promote involvement in conservation and historic preservation. In 2005 and 2007 he was a Visiting Professor in the Department of History-Public Program at Howard University in Washington, D.C.

Stanton has actively participated as a member in a variety of organizations during his lifetime. He represented the National Park Service and the U.S. Department of the Interior on the John F. Kennedy Performing Arts Board of Trustees, Wolf Trap Performing Arts Board of Directors, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, the Committee for the Preservation of the White House, and the National Park Foundation. Other past participation with organizations include Chairman of the Advisory Commission, Salt River Bay National Historic Park and Ecological Preserve, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands; Roundtable Associates, Inc.; and serving on the Board of Directors of the National Audubon Society and the Institute for the Advancement of Multicultural & Minority Medicine. Stanton's current affiliations with organizations include being a Fellow of the American Academy for Park and Recreation Administration; a Council Principal of The Council for Excellence in Government; Co-founder and Chairman Emeritus The African American Experience Fund of the National Park Foundation; and Life Member of the Employee and Alumni Association of the National Park Service. In addition, Stanton serves on the Board of Directors of the Student Conservation Association, Inc., the Accokeek Foundation at Piscataway Park, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, the Environmental Law Institute, the Grand Teton National Park Foundation, the Natural Resources Council of America, the Northern Virginia Regional Park Foundation, as well as the Board of Trustees of the Freedom Forum and the Advisory Councils of the Lady Byrd Johnson Wildflower Center and the Potomac Conservancy, and Honorary Trustee of the Woods Hole Research Center.

Stanton has received numerous awards for outstanding public service, conservation leadership, youth development, and diversity in employment and public programs. Some of the awards include: The Meritorious Service Award, the U.S. Department of the Interior, 1982; The Distinguished Service Award, the U.S. Department of the Interior's highest award, 1987; The President's Rank of Distinguished Senior Executive Award, Office of the President of the United States, 1993; The Walter Cox Environmental Leadership Award, Clemson University, 1997; the Presidential Award, Frederick Douglass Memorial and Historical Association, Inc., 1997; and the Cornelius Amory Pugsley National Medal Award, American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society, 2003. In addition, Stanton has received four honorary degrees: Doctor of Public Policy, Southern University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, December 1998; Doctor of Environmental Stewardship, Unity College, Unity, Maine, May 2000; Doctor of Science, Huston-Tillotson College, Austin, Texas, October 2000; and Doctor of Letters, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, August 2007.

Robert Stanton married Janet Milijoice Moffatte, of Chester, South Carolina, on July 27, 1968 in Washington, D.C. They have two children: Braniff Lamont and Rhonda Lynn.