Henry Martyn Robert (May 2, 1837 - May 11, 1923) was the author of Robert's Rules of Order, which became the most widely used manual of parliamentary procedure in the United States.
Robert was born in South Carolina and raised in Ohio, where his father moved the family because of his strong opposition to slavery. After graduating fourth in his class at West Point in 1857 he became a military engineer. In the American Civil War, he was assigned to the Corp of Engineers and worked on the defenses of Washington and several New England ports. He retired in 1901, having achieved the rank of brigadier general, Chief of Engineers .
He is most famous for his Pocket Manual of Rules of Order for Deliberative Assemblies -- a collection of rules regarding paliamentary procedure, published in 1876. He wrote the manual in response to his poor performance in leading a church meeting. He resolved that he would learn about parliamentary procedure before attending another meeting. The rules are loosely based on procedures used in the House of Representatives but the rule book was not intended for use in national and state legislatures.
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