Starr studied at Cornell University, with Max Ludwig Wolfram Laistner. Between 1940 and 1953 he was lecturer in history at the University of Illinois, Urbana. He became a professor in the same department, a position he held until 1970, when he moved to the University of Michigan. From 1973 to 1985 he held the Bentley Chair at Michigan. In 1974 he became the first president of the American Association of Ancient Historians.
