Robert Fulghum was born in 1937 in Waco, Texas. He has several academic degrees, worked as a singing cowboy in guest ranches in Texas, Colorado and Montana, and rode in local rodeos. For twenty years, he was an ordained parish minister at Seattle's Edmonds Unitarian Church, where he is now minister emeritus. Fulghum has travelled twice around the world, living in Thailand, Greece, Japan (in a Buddhist monastery) and France. He now lives on a houseboat in Seattle and spends his time sailing.