Garrett's father, Thomas Harrison Garrett, of the Class of 1868, died in 1888. While Robert Garrett and his two older brothers, Horatio W. Garrett 1895 and John W. Garrett 1895, were in college their mother lived at 1 Bayard Lane in the house later occupied by the family of Edgar Palmer '03, and now used by the University, to whom it was bequeathed by Mrs. Palmer, as a guest house. Mrs. Garrett's home was a center of hospitality for students in the 1890s; they later erected a tablet in her memory in Alexander Hall.
Robert Garrett excelled in track and field athletics as an undergraduate. He was captain of the team in both his junior and senior years. In 1896 he organized and personally financed an expedition of himself and three classmates to Athens for the first modern revival of the ancient Olympic Games. Garrett stood out among the competitors from all nations, winning two first places and two seconds. One of his firsts was in the discus throw, in which he had never competed before.
Another expedition, of greater ultimate consequence, which Garrett helped organize and finance was an archaeological expedition to Syria, led by Howard Crosby Butler 1892 in 1899-1900.
The interest engendered by this expedition stimulated Garrett to start his collection of Near Eastern manuscripts, which grew with the years and which, when he gave it to the University in 1942, consisted of 10,000 titles in Arabic, Persian, and Turkish, as well as several thousand Western manuscripts. The Garrett Collection is one of the principal scholarly resources of the Department of Near Eastern Studies and was one of the factors that enabled Professors Harold H. Bender and Philip K. Hitti to create a department of unique distinction in this country. The Garrett Collection of Near Eastern Manuscripts is still without a peer in the United States.
On his return from the archaeological expedition, Garrett entered the Baltimore investment banking firm of Robert Garrett & Sons, which had been founded by his great-grandfather and namesake, and in time he became chairman of the board. He also played a conspicuous part in the development of public recreational facilities, the Y.M.C.A., and arts museums in Baltimore.
Garrett's contributions to Princeton as trustee included the creation of the office of Consulting Architect (originally suggested to him by Professor Howard Crosby Butler); the metamorphosis of the Committee on Morals and Discipline, which he thought ``dourly named,'' into the Committee on Morals and Physical Education, and its later division into two committees, one on Student Life, the other on Health and Athletics; the establishment of the Department of Health and Physical Education, bringing Dr. Joseph E. Raycroft here from Chicago as its first chairman; and, finally, the nomination of his fellow townsman, Dr. John M. T. Finney 1884, to membership on the Board.
Garrett was president of the Class of 1897 for sixty-four years. He had two Princeton sons: Harrison Garrett '33 (alumni trustee 1964-1968) and Johnson Garrett '35.