Robert A. Stebbins, FRSC, received his Ph.D. in sociology in 1964 from the University of Minnesota. He taught in the departments of sociology at Presbyterian College (1964-65), Memorial University of Newfoundland (1965-73), University of Texas at Arlington (1973-76), and University of Calgary (1976 to 1999). He is now Professor Emeritus in the Faculty of Social Sciences. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (1999). Stebbins's research interests in leisure date to late 1973, the year he began his grounded theoretic work on amateurs.