Robert L. Metts was an adventurer and a disability activist that cared deeply about the lives of people with disabilities around the world. After receiving a BA in psychology from the University of California, Berkeley, Bob continued his education there to earn a PhD in economics with a focus on economic development. While in Kenya conducting research for his PhD dissertation, he had firsthand experience with the conditions disabled people faced in developing countries.

He became a full professor of economics at the University of Nevada, Reno, where he was an excellent teacher for 27 years. He was a Fulbright scholar conducting research on the impact of official development assistance on people with disabilities in Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa. His research and consulting work focused on disability and development. Bob worked with governments and nongovernmental organizations to design and implement policies and programs that included disabled people in all aspects of life. He consulted with the World Bank, the United States Agency for International Development, the International Labor Organization, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the Inter-American Development Bank, the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Institute, the World Institute on Disability, and the governments of Vietnam and Yemen. This important work took him to Vietnam, Yemen, Indonesia, Moscow, Novosibirsk, Siberia (more times than he ever liked to remember), and refugee camps in Kenya.

Bob was married for 36 years and lived with his wife, Nan sea, in a log home that he designed and they built together with the help of family and friends. He loved a good party and was renowned for hosting days-long gatherings where musicians jammed for hours, old and new friends cooked and ate a continual stream of astonishingly delicious food, and champagne corks flew.