While a student at Harvard, he starred in athletics, captaining the football team, rowing crew, and winning events in boxing and track.

[3] Bacon returned to the United States following the war but died from complications following surgery less than two months after his arrival in New York City.

Robert Bacon was born on July 5, 1860, in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, and raised in the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Boston.

[8] In 1894, Bacon accepted an offer to become a partner in J.P. Morgan & Co. in New York City, cancelling plans to relocate to France for his children's education.

[8] Although Congress failed to pass a bill explicitly granting Cleveland the authority to make such a sale, he finalized the agreement with Morgan on February 8, avoiding the suspension of payments.

Elbert Henry Gary, a Chicago lawyer who served as president of Federal Steel, hired Morgan to finance further acquisitions by the firm, with a particular interest in the holdings of Andrew Carnegie.

[9] Negotiations between Morgan and Charles M. Schwab, the president of Carnegie Steel, began December 12, 1898, and concluded in 1901 for $487 million, an unheard-of sum for the time.

The latter acquisition was opposed by E. H. Harriman of the Union Pacific Railroad; Harriman demanded a one-third interest in the acquisition and when refused, attempted (with Jacob Schiff of Kuhn, Loeb & Co.) a hostile takeover of Morgan's Northern Pacific Railway; Bacon led the takeover defense.

Harriman was named to the board of directors of the Northern Pacific and the Burlington, ending the takeover bid and calming the markets.

As Assistant Secretary, Bacon's work focused on relations with Canada and Latin America and advancing Roosevelt's Pan-American policy.

"[12] From July 4 through September 30, 1906, Bacon served as acting Secretary of State while Root was in Rio de Janeiro to attend the Pan-American Conference.

He also successfully negotiated the basis of a settlement of debt owed by the Dominican Republic and the return of land in Puerto Rico to the Catholic Church.

[13] However, the treaties were rejected in Colombia, where their introduction despite widespread anti-American sentiment led to a revolution and the resignation of President Rafael Reyes.

[17] Bacon and his family remained in Paris to brief Herrick on the diplomatic situation, causing them to cancel their planned trip on the RMS Titanic.

[17] In August 1914, after the outbreak of World War I in Europe, Bacon went to France to help with the work of the American Field Service – which provided ambulances and drivers to support French and British forces.

He was also attached to the British Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) and assisted with the establishment of a typhoid hospital near Ypres.

He criticized President Woodrow Wilson for inaction at the German invasion of Belgium and sought the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate against William M. Calder.

Bacon continued to push for a stronger national defense as well as a protective tariff that could be used for the mobilization of industry in case of war.

He returned to the United States in April 1919, five months after the war ended due to the Armistice with Germany on November 11, 1918.

[2]A sculpture entitled The Sacrifice was made by Malvina Hoffman as a memorial to the Bacon and alumni of Harvard University who lost their lives during World War I.