Read received his Doctor of Philosophy (1959) in graph theory from the University of London. Ronald Read served in the Royal Navy during World World War II, then completed a degree in mathematics at the University of Cambridge before joining the University College of the West Indies in Jamaica as the second founding member of the Mathematics Department there.
He has published many books and papers, primarily on enumeration of graphs, graph isomorphism, chromatic polynomials, and particularly, the use of computers in graph-theoretical research. A majority of his later work was done in Waterloo. In 1970 he moved his family to Canada to take up a post as Professor of Mathematics at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
While in Jamaica he became interested in cave exploration, and in 1957 he founded the Jamaica Caving Club.
He has had a lifelong interest in the making of string figures and is the inventor of the Olympic Flag String Figure on YouTube. He has diplomas in Theory and in Composition from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Canada, and has composed four works for orchestra and several pieces for smaller groups.
