R. Dean was born in a suburb of Los Angeles in 1942 and grew up on a farm in South Dakota, where he learned carpentry working with his father. He spent twenty years in school getting a typical American education and received a Masters in Theolgy in 1968. His spent three years in the Congo working with Habitat For Humanity and returned with a container full of exotic hard woods from the rainforest. He lives in Lockridge Community near Chapel Hill and is self employed as a carpenter/builder/artist.