Background
Robert P. Arthur was born in Norfolk, Virginia in 1943, but spent much of his childhood on the Eastern Shore of Virginia in Melfa and Silver Beach, which are small fishing communities on the Chesapeake Bay. His mother’s side of the family, the Barnes family, hails from the Scottish Drummond clan and William Drummond, who relocated to the Eastern Shore in the 1600’s. William Drummond, the colonial Governor and a principal player in Bacon’s Rebellion, was the first man hanged in Virginia for insurrection and a possible relative of the Scottish poet, William Drummond. Arthur and his three brothers were all superior athletes. After a move to Norfolk, Robert was Athlete of the Year at Granby High School in both football and basketball. Arthur eventually earned a football scholarship to the University of Richmond, Virginia, but a neck injury meant a career in sports was not feasible. After the injury he took to acting and writing. Later in life, he became a skiier and white-water canoeist, as well as a black belt in Taekwondo.