Research and Archival Elements of The George Bush Presidential Library

Robert earned his BA in American History from St. Bonaventure University in 1990 and an MA in American History from Texas A&M University in 1992. Dr. Holzweiss completed his PhD. in American history at Texas A&M University in May 2001 with a specialization in business and economic history and 20th Century America. His dissertation, Politics, Profits, and the Public Interest: Government, Railroads, and Interest Groups 1827–1976, examines the role of politics in the Penn Central bankruptcy and the creation of the Consolidated Railroad Company better known as Conrail.

During graduate school, Dr. Holzweiss interned for three summers at the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum in Baltimore, Maryland where he served as an archival and curatorial assistant. He started his career in the archives at the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum in June 1996. In August 2014, Dr. Holzweiss was promoted to Deputy Director and concurrently served as Acting Deputy Director at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library from January to August 2020. In December 2022 he was named Acting Director of the Bush Library. He currently manages all archival, museum, administrative and public facing functions of the Library.

In May 2010 he became the president of the Locomotive & Railway Historical Society, one of America's oldest railroad historical societies with 2,300 members worldwide. He is also a founding member of the Penn Central Railroad Historical Society. In addition, he has been the lead consultant for the digital archives project for Nobel Laureate Norman E. Borlaug and served as an expert witness on railroad matters for the U.S. Department of Justice. He is also a Visiting Adjunct Professor in the Department of History at Texas A&M University and in the Department of International Affairs at the George Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University. He has published several scholarly and popular articles on railroad history and archival practice. He resides in Bryan, Texas and has been married to Dr. Peggy (Philpot) for twenty-four years and has two sons Jakob (21) and Nicholas (19).