Bob was born and raised in a blue-collar neighborhood in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A street kid, he spent several summers on his own with his good friend, Jimmy Malloy, in beach towns in New Jersey where they worked as dishwashers and countermen, panhandled the boardwalk, and slept in the Caterpillar, an amusement park ride, in between jobs.

On graduation from high school where he played football, Bob again took off with a couple of friends, one a gigolo, and the other a pool hustler, and bummed around for a couple of years in New York City and New Jersey Beach resorts. He returned to Philadelphia and worked for a spell in a shipyard before he joined the U.S. Navy in order to avoid the draft.

In the navy, he was trained to be an electronics technician and one of his jobs was flight deck troubleshooter for a fighter squadron on the U. S. Midway. Always a rebel, he was court marshaled for direct disobedience of orders while on the Midway, busted to the rank of airman, and given fourteen days hard labor. He did get to see a lot of Europe, however, as well as Cuba and Haiti. and was honorably discharged.

After military service, hoping to become an actor, Bob was accepted into the Drama Department of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh on the G.I. Bill of Rights. He was kicked out for being a bad one, however, after his sophomore year. Nevertheless, he did fall in love while there and was married shortly after. He finished his schooling by attending classes at Columbia University in New York City during the day and loading trucks by night to support himself and his family and graduated with a B.A. in Creative Writing.