Robert J. Beaver graduated from Bloomsburg State Teachers College (now Bloomsburg University) in 1959. In 1964, he completed an M.S. in Mathematics from Bucknell University and enrolled in the graduate program in Statistics chaired by William Mendenhall at the University of Florida. After completing a Ph.D. in Statistics with a minor in Mathematics, Beaver took the position of Assistant Professor at the newly formed Department of Statistics headed by F.

N. David at the University of California, Riverside. Dr. Beaver spent his entire career at Riverside, moving through the ranks to Full Professor. His research areas included paired comparisons and skewed distributions including the skewed normal, skewed Cauchy, and skewed logistic. During his time at Riverside, Beaver served as chairman of the Department of Statistics as well as chairman of the faculty of the College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences. After 35 years at Riverside, he retired in 2005 as Professor Emeritus and Statistician. Beaver has been an author for Cengage since 1966, authoring and co-authoring various Study Guides and textbooks with William Mendenhall and other authors.

He and his wife Barbara have two children and four grandchildren.