Robert William Head lives in the woodlands of western Kentucky. He taught painting and drawing at Murray State University from 1965 until 1997.

His work has been shown in numerous one person and group exhibitions throughout the United States. Recent solo shows were held at Berea College, Berea, Kentucky; Southern Illinois University at Carbondale; Concord College, Athens, West Virginia; the University of Massachusetts at Amherst; Doane College, Crete, Nebraska; Western Kentucky University at Bowling Green; and The Parthenon Museum, Nashville, Tennessee.
A native of Springfield, Illinois, Head received a Bachelor of Arts degree from MacMurray College, Jacksonville, Illinois in 1963 and a M.F.A. degree from Kent State University, Kent, Ohio, in 1965. He was designated Distinguished Professor at Murray State in 1981. He served as Chair of the Department of Arts for eleven years and is now Professor Emeritus.

Head was a visiting faculty member at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks in 1986 and also on the Semester-at-Sea program in 1970 and 1972. MacMurray College awarded him the honorary degree of Doctor of Humanities in 1995.

The artist has traveled throughout Africa, Asia, Mexico and Canada. In the last few years he has spent much time painting in Alaska, frequently in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in the Brooks Range.