Robert Catton was a Honolulu businessman, author, and admirer of Robert Louis stevenson. Though Catton and stevenson spent only a few weeks together, Catton came to love and appreciate the fellow-Scotsman and well-known writer. Catton's home was a shrine to stevenson, featuring collections of books by and about the author, signed photographs, and correspondence with scholars throughout the world. Mr. Catton was himself the author of a book about Stevenson entitled: A Little Bit of R. L. s. This volume was originally presented in the form of an address to the Thistle Club of Honolulu and in 1916 was published in Edinburgh.

Robert Catton was born in Aberdour, Fifeshire, Scotland on October 7, 1847, the son of an English father and Scottish mother. He attended Dollar Academy in Scotland and thereafter was apprenticed to the Whitebank Iron Works in Kirkcaldy for six years. In 1873 he was sent to the West Indies by this company to serve as an engineer on a sugar plantation. His work as an engineer in the West Indies was followed by a series of positions in connection with sugar plantations, including work in Peru in 1876, again in the West Indies, and finally in Hawaii in 1878. Catton was married in Granada in 1878 to Brereton Lewis Streat, and that same year he and his new bride were sent to Honolulu by his employer, the Marilees-Watson Company, makers of sugar manufacturing machinery. During this time, Catton was instrumental in laying the foundations for the Waimanalo, Waianae, Kilauea and Paahau sugar mills. In 1879, Catton went to Maui where he remained in plantation work until 1883.

He then came back to Honolulu where he was associated with the businesses of G.W. MacFarlane & Co. and W. L. Green in selling sugar machinery and steam plows. In 1896 Catton, with John Neill and William Stodart, established the firm of Catton, Neill and Co. This firm manufactured sugar mill machinery continuously in Hawaii for 25 years, finally selling out in 1923 to the Honolulu Iron Works.

Catton retired and resigned the presidency of Catton, Neill & Co. in 1915. He spent the following four years in Scotland and the united States, returning to Hawaii in 1919. During his retirement, Catton concentrated on his books and writing, and remained active in his participation as a Mason and in the parish of st. Andrew's church. He had five children: John Herbert, Robert Redford, Margaret Mary, Janet, and Andrew. Catton died July 7, 1938.