Robert Sitton was born in Selma, North Carolina and brought up in Washington, D.C., where his mother worked for the Federal Trade Commission. He was educated in Southern military schools in Fork Union, Virginia and Salemburg, N.C. His B.A. is from Wake Forest College, where he majored in Philosophy and Psychology. He received his Ph.D. in Philosophy from Duke University in 1964. In the sixties he worked at the New York Times and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, where he pursued his interest in film. In the early seventies he served as Drama and Literature Director at Pacifica Radio's KPFA in Berkeley, while teaching at the Center for Filmmaking Studies at U.C. Berkeley. In 1973 he moved to Portland, Oregon where as Director of the Northwest Film Study Center at the Portland Art Museum he developed a multi-faceted center for the study of film. Since 1981 he has been Adjunct Professor of Cultural and Media Studies at Marylhurst University near Portland. At the same time he began research on the life and work of Iris Barry (1995-1969), pioneering film critic and founder of the film department at the Museum of Modern Art. In 2014 his book, "Lady in the Dark: Iris Barry and the Art of Film" was published by Columbia University Press. He is an avid roller skater and in 2010 won the silver medal in figure skating for men over 65 at the United States championships.
