Background
Creighton was born on April 5, 1931, in Muskegon, Michigan, United States. He was the son of Kenneth Alonzo and Edith Myrtle (Creighton) Gabel.
His life-long interest in archaeology, according to Creighton, had its beginnings in the Field Museum of Chicago. During childhood visits to his maternal grandparents who lived in the metropolis, his grandmother would take him on the elevated train to the museum, where he was captivated by Egyptian mummies, the dioramas of cavemen, and other displays of relics of the past.