Robin Leech, P.Biol., graduated in Botany and Zoology with a minor in English. His MSc (1965) and PhD were both taken on spider classification and biogeography. He is a Charter Member of the American Arachnological Society, and serves on its Common Names Committee. He served for almost 40 years as an Associate Editor of The Entomological Society of Canada. He has two children from a previous marriage, and three grandchildren.

His wife, Lorie J. Taylor Leech is a fine artist and illustrator, and an educator (BGS; BEd.), who has come to enjoy working with and studying spiders.