Robert Lowell Goller

Robert Lowell Goller

Robert Lowell Goller is a public historian and former journalist who has served as the town and village historian in East Aurora, N.Y., since 2007. Through his books, monthly newspaper column and weekly videos on Facebook and YouTube, he uncovers previously untold stories of the past and places the history of small towns such as East Aurora in the context of national and international events. His television appearances have included C-SPAN and “Sunday Morning” on CBS.

Who Put the ‘East’ in East Aurora? is his third book. 

He is also the author of Aurora Revisited (2011) and Legendary Locals of East Aurora (2014).

A graduate of the State University of New York College at Geneseo, he launched his journalism career in the fifth grade with Goller’s Gazette, a newspaper that served his neighborhood for seven years. He was a reporter at The Daily Messenger in Canandaigua, N.Y., and editor of the East Aurora Advertiser. Interviews during his journalism career included the Brown sisters of the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education and noted American rabbi and author Harold Kushner. He was a member of press pools covering First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton in 1998 and former President George H.W. Bush in 1999.

In 2008, he was awarded the Mary and Gil Stott Award at Roycroft for achievement in writing, music and history, and in 2011 he was among Business First newspaper’s “40 Under 40” rising community and business leaders in Western New York. The County Legislature named him Erie County Citizen of the Month for November 2019.

Since 2005, he has donned his signature top hat as the master of ceremonies of East Aurora’s annual Christmas Carolcade, a role he has reprised for appearances in holiday movies, including “A Royal Christmas Engagement” in 2020, and the Hallmark Channel’s “Holiday Touchdown: A Bills Love Story” in 2025.

He also satirically portrays President Millard Fillmore and the “secret singing guest” at the Aurora Historical Society’s annual political roast fundraiser.

He and his husband Jason live in the Village of East Aurora.