Robert G Marbut

Politics

While co-chairman of the Republican National Committee, Anne Armstrong spotted eleven-year-old Marbut, serving beverages to guests at a John Tower reelection event in San Antonio, Texas in 1972. After a conversation with Marbut, Armstrong arranged for Marbut to receive convention credentials and, at the age of twelve, Marbut went to the 1972 Republican convention in Miami. At the convention, Marbut was picked to greet First Lady Pat Nixon at her official airport arrival to the convention. The following day, a picture of Marbut with the First Lady appeared on the front page of daily newspapers in the United States.

Marbut eventually became very active in politics. His political experience was mostly with Republicans and some conservative Texas Democrats, including Frank Tejeda.

Marbut was the campaign manager during the last two non-partisan mayoral campaigns in San Antonio for Henry Cisneros in 1985 and 1987. Marbut worked closely with him during 1984-1989 rising to Cisneros’s chief-of-staff at the age of 25. Through Cisneros, in 1989 Marbut applied for and was appointed to a White House fellowship at the age of 29, working in the executive office of President George H. W. Bush.

In 1995 Marbut ran for and won a council seat representing a city district of San Antonio in 1995. He ran for re-election successfully in 1997.

The Texas governor in 2009, Rick Perry, appointed, and later reappointed Marbut, as a board member of the OneStar National Service Commission Board (OSNSC), a state agency promoting community service in Texas that oversees the administration of all AmeriCorps programs in Texas.

Later, Marbut was active in a variety of partisan campaigns, such as the 2012 presidential election campaign of Mitt Romney and in non-partisan campaigns, including being manager of the local election initiative to fund and create the Alamodome and the AT&T Arena.

Athletics and sports administration

As a student Marbut was an All-American at water polo and swimming in high school and he also participated in college sports.

He then entered sports administration professionally. Marbut became president and CEO of the 1989 Jr. Olympic games, president and CEO of the 1993 US Olympic Festival, president and CEO of SAOne the San Antonio Spurs sports and entertainment division (1993-1995), and founding president and CEO of the San Antonio Sports Foundation (1985-1989 as a volunteer and 1990-1991). Marbut also served as chair and president of USA Pentathlon (1994-1997) and as its executive director and secretary general (2001-2005).

As a volunteer, Marbut was active with the United States Olympic Committee in a variety of capacities: on the USOC board of directors (1992-2005), a member of the executive committee (2000-2004), an officer on the USOC officers group (2000-2004), and chair of the National Governing Bodies Council, the management organization for all the winter and summer Olympic sports, as well as all the Pan American Game sports (2000-2005). He was also one of nine directors on a board of the United States Olympic Foundation (1997-2000). He is a member of the Modern Pentathlon Olympic training squad, which includes the sports of fencing, shooting, horseback jumping, running, and swimming.

On three different occasions, Marbut also worked as an administrator for the San Antonio Spurs.

Haven for Hope participation

In 2006, Marbut was selected as the founding president and CEO of Haven for Hope of Bexar County, Inc., which describes itself as a transformational campus. The campus has 17 main buildings on 37 acres with almost a half million square feet under roof, housing 82 nonprofit, faith-based, and governmental agencies near San Antonio. In a 2013 press release, the organization stated that since its 2006 founding, with the assistance of co-located services "nearly 1,100 people have been guided from homelessness to permanent housing".

Work with Marbut Consulting

Through Marbut Consulting, he has consulted with hundreds of local governments, community foundations and non-profit service agencies in dozens of states.[19]

Dr. Marbut has pursued a centrist approach to addressing the condition of homelessness based on management expert Peter Drucker systems approach. He is often attack from the both the Far Right and the Far Left.

Many on the Far Right have suggested arresting homeless individuals and reducing public funding for recovery programs believing that homeless individuals often “choose” to become homeless. Dr. Marbut does not believe that “criminalization” works.

Dr. Marbut has been critical of many aspects of the Federal Government’s approach to homelessness. He has argued the Housing First approach is not financially sustainable citing many of the early adopters like New York, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City and Hawaii saw initial small successes but have now experienced major spikes in the number of homeless. He argues the Federal model is not financially sustainable because housing costs have become too expensive for the model to work.

Communities like Los Angeles and Hawaii have actually had to declare States of Emergencies because of the increased numbers and levels of violence. Dr. Marbut has also challenged this approach based on clinical efficacy, saying that one-size- fits-all- approach is too limiting and does not address the real root causes of homeless. Liberal leaning Bill Maher’s Vice network and The Huffington Post both did critical stories on Dr. Marbut’s approach.

In speeches, Marbut has said that much of his work with homelessness is based on the writings and philosophies of Max Lucado. Lucado and he were next door neighbors for more than a decade and Marbut attends Oak Hills Church where Lucado is senior pastor.

Education and academics

Marbut earned degrees in several fields. In 2005 he earned a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin, department of government program with three minors: American politics, international relations, and political behavior. He also earned a master of arts in government from the University of Texas at Austin in 2003 and a master of arts in criminal justice from Claremont Graduate School in 1985. As an undergraduate at Claremont McKenna/Men's College he earned a bachelor of arts with majors in economics, political science, and psychology.

He became a CORO post-graduate fellow of public and urban affairs in Los Angeles (1983-1984), and a TEACH fellow to Bahrain and Qatar (2011). He also took classes through FEMA's Emergency Management Institute.

His research, publishing, and speaking engagement topic fields include Hispanic/Latino voting behavior, homelessness, criminal justice, terrorism, and homeland security.

Marbut is a tenured full professor at Northwest Vista College and has taught at Texas State University and University of Texas at San Antonio.

Personal life

Marbut was born in Savannah, Georgia to Berta Dodd Marbut and Robert Marbut, Sr. He has three siblings Laura Dodd Marbut, Mike Powers Marbut, and Marcy Marbut. His parents divorced while Marbut was in college.

Marbut was married to Mary Hartman (1985-1996) and then to Diane Ciaccio Nunnery (1998-2010). Marbut has six children: Mike Nunnery, Chris Nunnery, Matthew Nunnery, Amanda Marbut, Jon Marbut, and Peter Marbut. Peter Marbut was adopted from a Ceausescu era Romania orphanage by Mary Hartman and Marbut.