[2] At age 17, in 1867, he moved to St. Louis, where he joined his brother Harry as an employee of Cupples & Marston, a wholesale dealer of household goods.

Robert practiced sales techniques and convinced Samuel Cupples to give him a salesman position, known as a drummer.

A separate endeavor from Cupples & Marston, the Station revolutionized shipping in St. Louis and served as a model for other cities.

Brookings helped transform the small school into a leading university with national prominence.

Brookings' friends, including William K. Bixby, Adolphus Busch, and Edward Mallinckrodt, assisted with the building campaign.

[2] In 1917, President Woodrow Wilson appointed Brookings to the War Industries Board, and later named him chairman of its Price Fixing Committee.

Distinguished Service Medal, the French Legion of Honor, and the Order of the Crown of Italy for his wartime work.

In 1916, Brookings was appointed the first board chairman of the Institute for Government Research, an independent organization dedicated to political study.

In 1928, the three organizations were combined to form the Brookings Institution, which was influential with the U.S. federal government's budget processes in the 1920s and, several decades later, with the Tax Reform Act of 1986.

[2] Brookings married Isabel Valle January (1876–1965) of San Remo, Italy, in 1927 at an Episcopal Church.