Robert John McGhee was born in Wiarton, Ontario. He studied at the University of Toronto and the University of Calgary, receiving a Ph.D. in 1968. In 2000, he was awarded the Massey Medal of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He specializes in the archaeology of the Arctic, and is currently Curator of Western Arctic Archaeology at the Canadian Museum of Civilization.