I was born in Oakland, California in 1946 and grew up in the hills in a family of eight. My dad, also Bob, worked in the printing industry and my mom, Janet, was a fulltime homemaker who worked in later years. I attended Sequoia Elementary School, Montera Junior High School, and Skyline High School, graduating in 1964.

My freshman year of college was spent at Rocky Mountain College in Billings, Montana, where I attended on a baseball scholarship. This was followed by a year at Laney College in Oakland and then CSU, Chico, where I received a B.A. (1968) and M.A. (1972) in English, along with a secondary teaching credential. Following a year working at the Holmes Book Company in Oakland, I went to graduate school at UCLA. where I earned a Masters degree in Library and Information Science (1974). I was back at Holmes Book Co. until 1977, when I was hired as a librarian at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. In 1981 I was named head of the Special Collections Department in the library at University of Nevada, Reno.

Almost immediately upon assuming my duties as head of Special Collections, I began assisting the department’s former head, Ken Carpenter, in the work of the Black Rock Press, which Ken had founded in 1965. The main activity of the Press was teaching a class called the History and Practice of Printing, in which students learned traditional letterpress printing. With Ken’s retirement in 1986, I took over the work of the press, teaching classes and producing limited edition books, trade editions, and broadsides. In 2006, the Press received a position from the university and I became the fulltime director of the Black Rock Press, which is now a program in the Department of Art. I am also a professor of art.

As a photographer, I'm interested in architectural, landscape, and travel photography. My photographs of historical structures have recently appeared in a new Black Rock Press publication, Historic Houses and Buildings of Reno, Nevada by Holly Walton-Buchanan.

I'm married to Victoria Davies, who is a sales representative for book publishers. We were married in both Italy and Reno in 2004. My son Matt is Korean and was adopted in 1986 when he was three months old. He attended Truckee high school and graduated with honors from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2008 with a degree in ethnic studies.

Vicki and I love to travel and during the past few years we've visited Italy several times along with France and England. We also enjoy cooking, good books, and love going to our church, Good Shepherd Lutheran in Reno.

I'm nuts about golf and play as often as I can, which isn't nearly enough. I also love to cook and am beginning a journey to learn to bake bread. Vicki and I helped found Slow Food Reno and are very passionate about local sustainable food.