Robert M. Chute, a native of Naples, Maine, was educated, according to Chute, with varying degrees of success, at Fryeburg Academy, the University of Maine, and Johns Hopkins University. He served in the U.S. Air Force in WWII. In 1962 at Bates College he was Chairman of the Biology Department. Wearing his scientific hat, he wrote Introduction to Biology and Environmental Insight both published by Harper and Row. During the 1960s he produced and edited a mimeograph poetry magazine, The Small Pond. Research in and Professing of Biology supported his poetry habit until retirement from Bates College in 1993. During the Vietnam War he ran as an independent protest candidate for the U. S. House and continues as an active supporter of Veterans for Peace.
