Ronald Robertson was born in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1933 and graduated BSc(Forestry) at Aberdeen University in 1954. After National Service as an instructor in the Royal Army Educational Corps, he worked for the Ghana Forest Department as an Assistant Conservator of Forests from 1957 - 1961. In 1962 he graduated from the Aberdeen College of Education with a Teacher's Certificate and then worked as a Forestry Officer with the Northern Nigerian Forest Service for three years. He taught school in Shetland Isles for one year and then immigrated to Nova Scotia in 1966, where he has lived since, wor