Richard Robinson was born in Portland, Oregon in 1938 and moved to Fairbanks, Alaska in 1950 with his adventurous mother, Frances. He attended a small school that housed the seventh and eighth grades downstairs, and upon graduation moved upstairs to high school. He worked on a land surveying crew for a time in the wilds of Alaska before enrolling in the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. He later did a two-year hitch in the United States Army which included an eighteen month tour of Germany. Richard currently resides in Fairbanks.