Robert Andrew Parker was born in 1927 in Norfolk, Virginia, and studied at the Art Institute of Chicago from 1948-1952. In an interview with Steven Heller (Innovators of American Illustration 1986) he said that he signed up with the agent Eugenia Lewis and immediately got lots of work, particularly for pharmaceutical companies. "Then, Leo Lionni at FORTUNE - I guess he saw an early show too - began to give me some terrific jobs. Lionni sent me down in a coal mine - in Pennsylvania.: then around the wolrd on a fact finding trip for an article called 'New Sources of Oil'..."