Father Bob was born in Hannibal, MO, a small town on the Mississippi River, perhaps best known as the one-time residence of author Mark Twain, and the scene of his most famous characters, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. He graduated from his Catholic parish grade and high school. He obtained a scholarship to St. Benedict's College in Atchison, Kansas, and graduated with a degree in philosophy and minors in Latin and Education. He was accepted for priesthood studies by the Catholic Diocese of St. Joseph, Missouri. Upon graduation from St. Benedict's, he was sent to Rome for four years of theological studies, and traveled throughout Europe in the summers. His classes and exams at the Gregorian University were in Latin. At one time and another he studied his favorite native English language, Latin, Greek, French, Italian, and even a semester of Hebrew. He was ordained in Rome on December 17, 1955, and celebrated his first Mass the next day in St. Peter's Basilica. Bob's father Frank had died during the Roman years, but his widowed mother Rose was present along with friends, classmates. Bob's sister Rose became a nun while he was in Rome, and a scholar of medical terms, and an expert in medical records, as well as a college textbook on medical terms for colleges and universities through many editions over 25 years. Their mother Rose taught them her love of reading, which both have treasured.

Bob returned to the U.S. in the early summer of 1956; he served in parishes in St. Joseph and Kansas City for ten years, before year-round graduate studies in the 1960s led to 37 years' teaching at Rockhurst.