Robert Crow was born and raised in Seattle, the middle of three brothers. His father was a Seattle policeman who rose to Division Chief, and his mother a wonderful woman and great cook. He was an average student at Lincoln High School and during the first two years at the University of Washington where he majored in chemistry. In 1963 he got an “invitation” (draft notice) to join the U.S. Army and did so. After training as a medical specialist, he attended and graduated from the U.S. Army Infantry Officer Candidate School.
After discharge in 1966, he attended Eastern Washington University and graduated with BA and MA degrees in psychology. At Utah State University, he obtained a PhD in psychology. In all of his
graduate studies he emphasized the Experimental Analysis of Behavior under the advisement and mentoring of Dr. Carl D. Cheney.
At the start of his career, Dr. Crow worked as a trouble-shooting Child Development Specialist and later as a Project Director in a large school system in Nevada. From there he moved to Indiana to be Superintendent of a specialized treatment center serving children with profound, multiple disabilities. This center also was the technical resource program for the State division on mental retardation and developmental disabilities. Subsequently, he moved to the higher education system of Montana to develop a statewide resource center focused on developmental disabilities. It was from there he moved in 1985 to New Orleans to head the Human Development Center of the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center.
As Director of the Human Development Center, he developed an array of programs addressing matters related to quality of life for persons with disabilities across the lifespan. These programs included technical assistance to all the United States and territories regarding U.S. education policy implementation; state-level training and assistance in topics of disabilities, autism and human development; and, training and assistance for community programs ranging from early childhood, through special education to adult services including employment, living options, and topics of aging and elderly.
In addition to being Center Director, Dr. Crow was Head of the Department of Interdisciplinary Human Studies in the School of Allied Health Professions. For the School, he taught a graduate-level
course in Leadership and Management and at a local university he taught courses in topics of education and behavior analysis.
By the end of his career, Dr. Crow had taught many courses in topics of education, psychology, and behavior analysis at seven universities. He was certified as a School Psychologist, licensed
as a Psychologist in two states, and certified as a graduate of the Management Training Program at the University of Alabama, Birmingham. In 2005, Dr. Crow retired from the LSU Health Sciences
Center and in that year he was credentialed as a Board Certified Behavior Analyst-Doctoral.
While writing this text Dr. Crow drew on his knowledge of the natural science of behavior and upon lessons he learned during five decades of applied experiences, including a cherished history of
interactions with consumers, family members, professionals, and leaders striving for successes in matters of human development. In
this book, as he did throughout his career, Dr. Crow shares lessons from science and life in ways intended to encourage readers to achieve more successes and enjoy an increased quality of life.