Bob completed his undergraduate education in Agriculture at the University of Saskatchewan in 1972 but the orientation to controlling nature for economic ends was dissonant with his own life experience of relating to the natural world. In response, he traveled around the world for two years searching to develop his own understanding of humanity's relationship to nature. During his travels, he met Richard St Barbe Baker (who was known as the Man of the Trees) and Bob felt an inner calling to understand St Barbe Baker's grand vision of a cooperative relationship with the earth. His intellectual inquiry and the St Barbe Baker influence led him to embrace the Baha'i Faith in 1982.