Robert Julian Stone, who has been a full-time Palm Springs resident since 2006, is an author and community advocate. Robert was a founding member of the Warm Sands Neighborhood Organization, served on the neighborhood’s Advisory Council for seven years, and was President in his final year of service. He was also the neighborhood representative to One PS in 2012. In 2006 he spearheaded the “Jungle Red” public art installation at the corner of Warm Sands Drive and Ramon Road, finding the artist, writing the proposal, and shepherding it through public hearings. In 2011 and 2012 he worked diligently to remedy the damage done by the City’s notorious Warm Sands sex sting and to exonerate the innocent.
From 2008-2011 Robert served as a Palm Springs Public Art Commissioner, bringing many new public art installations to the City. In his final year of service, as Chair of the Commission, he helped coordinate, with the Palm Springs Art Museum, the “Art at the Airport” project which installed eleven pieces of public art from the museum’s collection at Palm Springs International airport.
Robert previously lived in San Francisco where he was editor of the Bay Area Reporter and a freelance journalist. He has authored four books, two of them about Palm Springs (Postcards from Palm Springs and Hollywood or Lust). He has twice (2008 and 2011) been the subject of Los Angeles Times cover stories about his work in Palm Springs. As a writer, he has contributed to SF Weekly, LA Weekly, Christopher Street, Palm Springs Life magazine, and The Desert Sun; he is currently an Official Blogger for the Huffington Post. During 15 years of government service, he was a Staff Analyst on the staff of the Regional Commissioner for Social Security, specializing in systems analysis. Robert is a licensed California Real Estate Broker; he has been a licensee for 25 years.
Robert received his B.A. and M.A. from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He is a member of Desert Stonewall Democrats; The (LGBT) Center; the Palm Springs Art Museum; and the Palm Springs Preservation Foundation where he has been a volunteer docent for many years. Robert lives in Palm Springs with his husband, Dr. Robert Maietta.