Robert D. Warden was born January 4, 1904 in Great Falls, Montana. He attended the University of Montana journalism school, graduating in 1927. Warden served in the U.S. Navy in Washington, D.C. for three and a half years during World War II and was in the Navy Reserve for 21 years. He joined the staff of his father's paper, the Great Falls Tribune in 1925. He rose from cub reporter to executive editor and was part owner of the paper until it was sold in 1965. From that time until his death in 1979 he pursued his interest in western art and history with his wife, Margaret S. Warden.
Margaret S. Warden was born Margaret Smith July 18, 1917. She was a library trustee, a Montana state senator, a member of the Montana State Advisory Council for Libraries, a member of the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, a member of the Montana Committee for the Humanities, and an Advisory Committee Member of the 1979 White House Conference on Library and Information Services. She died February 25, 2005.
From the guide to the R. D. and Margaret S. Warden Collection MS 138., 1835-1990, (University of Texas at San Antonio Libraries Special Collections)
