Robert A. Coplin was born and raised in New York City. He grew up in Harlem and his affinity for drawing compelled him to attended the High School of Art & Design, where he studied Illustration and Cartooning. During his High School years, he developed two great loves, comic book illustration and the martial arts. Due in part to Bruce Lee's portrayal of Kato in the old Green Hornet television show, he was inspired to study Shotokan Karate for the next twenty-two years. The serenity that he learned from this training helped nurture a growing passion he had for writing, which he dabbled in for many years. Graduating from Art & Design, he spent a few years working at several odd jobs before beginning a thirty-two-year career at the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey.
He moonlighted as the Executive Art Director for a Long Island newspaper, The Community Reporter, where he was the creator and artist of a comic strip called Captain Mentor, an African American super-hero who helped to educate young people. He graduated Cum Laude from Monroe College, where he earned a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration while working full time and raising a family. Having fulfilled a lifetime dream, he has combined his two great loves of illustration and writing with the completion of his second novel, "THE UPHOLDERS: DELIVER US FROM EVIL!".