Robert Gordon (philanthropist) Robert Gordon (philanthropist) Robert Gordon (1668–1731), a 17th-century merchant and philanthropist, was born in Aberdeen. He was the only son of Arthur Gordon who married Isabella Menzies of Balgownie. When Arthur Gordon, a well-respected advocate in the Edinburgh courts, died in 1680, he left his twelve-year-old son the sum of 20,000 merks (about £1,100 then and considerably more in modern currency). When Gordon reached the age of sixteen he became a Burgess of the City of Aberdeen. Among other benefits, this entitled him to follow a merchant's trade in the town. During the next few years he attended Marischal College,
Robert Winslow Gordon Robert Winslow Gordon Robert Winslow Gordon (September 2, 1888 – March 26, 1961) was educated at Harvard. He joined the English faculty at the University of California at Berkeley in 1918. In 1923, he was asked by Arthur Sullivant Hoffman to run the folk music column "Old Songs Men Have Sung" in Hoffman's magazine, "Adventure". Gordon accepted and used the "Adventure" column to collect information on traditional American music from the magazine's readers. He was the founding head of the Archive of American Folk Song (later the Archive of Folk Culture, which became part of the American Folklife Center) at