Robert J.M. Shipley grew up in southern Ontario. He studied at University of Western Ontario (BA 1971) and became an officer, first in the army then the navy. During his four years, he served on the prairies, both coasts and at sea. As a freelancer in the 1970s, he wrote for the Toronto newspapers and regional dailies. Historical drama workshops took him to schools throughout Ontario. Living for 10 years in Niagara, he wrote corporate and community histories, political speeches, planning studies, tourist promotions and worked as an editor. His first history, poetry and children's books appeared in the late 1980s. During the 1980s his work turned more and more to cultural heritage, heritage based tourism and community deverlopment. In 1990, he returned to university at Waterloo, where he completed his Ph.D in 1997. Robert joined Waterloo's Faculty of Environment and served as Professor and Associate Director of the School of Planning until his retirement in 2016. As an academic he conducted internationl research on cultural heritage issues and published dozens of articles, book chapters and consulting reports. His research took hime to the UK, continental Europe, China and Africa. Since his retirement he has turned his hand back to one of his first loves, fiction. His first short story was published in 2019 in the American on-line journal, As You Were, the Military Review.