Robert Edwin Friend was born in 1947 in DeKalb Co., Indiana, attended a two-room country grade school, and graduated from Waterloo H.S. in 1965. After farm labor and mowing lawns in high school, he worked his way through college at Ball State University via electroplating, dormitory food service, B.&O. Railroad fireman, house trailer factories, rock 'n' roll band (lead guitarist), newspaper production, etc. He holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees in journalism. After college he taught school three years, then did professional photography seven years, followed by thirty years in applied graphics & professional signage.

His personal interests include photography, writing, bicycling, hiking, cross-country skiing, home projects, guitar and travel. He also spends time collating pictorial and verbal recollections of DeKalb County's "good ol' days" and the Friend/Knox & Meyer/Saltsman families.

Bob and his wife Kerstin live in Wauconda Township, Illinois, and own two dogs -- a boy and girl pug. He has two children from a prior marriage: Lindsey (now Moloney), b. 1974, graduate of St. Mary's College at Notre Dame, teaches music in Kansas; she had a bouncing baby boy, Cormac Albert Moloney, in April '07; her husband Brian is a physician. Jonathan, b. 1980, graduate of DePaul University, works in administration for the Illinois Dept. of Transportation; his fiancée Becky Carroll is VP Communications for the Chicago Fire professional soccer team; they live in the Loop.