Robert L. Bliss was born in Seattle, Washington.  He is an architect, former dean, and most recently, a furniture designer.  He lives in Salt Lake City, Utah. 

Bliss attended Black Mountain College in North Carolina (1939–42) where Lawrence Kocher was an influence.  Kocher had studied under Josef Albers, a former architect for  the Bauhaus.  After military service, Bliss earned a bachelors degree at MIT where Alvar Aalto’s humanist approach to design was another significant influence on Bliss’s work. 

Bliss was an associate professor of architecture at the University of Minnesota for eight years.  He then began a 23-year career at the University of Utah where he was chairman, department of architecture (1963–74), dean of the graduate school of architecture (1974–86), full professor in the Graduate School of Architecture (1986–90) retiring as professor emeritus.  During his time as Chair, he introduced computer design into the architecture program.  He and his wife designer Anna Campbell Bliss have been partners in an architecture and design firm, Bliss and Campbell since 1955.  In recent years, Bliss has been formed a furniture design company, Mobilata.

Biographical information on this page was adapted from Artists of Utah.