Robert Foster Collins was born in 1906 in Lansing, Michigan to Frank Noble and Grace Foster Collins. He received his formal education in the public schools of southern Michigan and graduated with a B.S.F in 1928 from Michigan State University. In 1929 he obtained a M.F. degree from the Yale Forest School of Yale University.

Initially Collins was employed by the Land and Economic Survey of the Michigan Department of Conservation as a research assistant. By 1930 he had joined the United States Forest Service, first serving as a technical advisor at the Lake States Forest Experiment Station. From 1933 to 1934 he worked in South Dakota at the Medicine Bow National Forest and Black Hills National Forest. In 1934 he moved to the Mark Twain National Forest in Missouri where he held increasingly responsible administrative positions.

His tenure there was interrupted in 1941 when his army reserve unit was called to active service. During World War II Collins was with the armor division in the South Pacific theater and participated in the Guam, Leyte, and Okinawa operations.

After the war he returned to the Mark Twain National Forest, staying there until 1950 when he was transferred to the Forest Service regional office in Philadelphia. In 1953 he was assigned as forest supervisor of the Cumberland National Forest (renamed Daniel Boone National Forest in the 1960s) in Kentucky. During his tenure the Forest Service successfully resisted the encroachment of strip miners in the forest and saw the rise of an active conservation movement in the region.

Collins retired from his supervisory position in 1970. Shortly after retirement, Collins spent four years as a visiting professor of forest policy at the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture. He taught a course in forest policy and wrote a textbook on Forest Policy of the United States and The History of the Daniel Boone National Forest.

Collins is a member of numerous professional, historical, and civic organizations including a fellow of the Society of American Foresters. He continues his interest in Kentucky and military history, the history of weaponry, and conservation and environmental issues. He and his wife the former Ruth Estelle Mangum were married in South Dakota in 1934. They have one son, Robert T. Collins who resides in California. Mr. and Mrs. Collins lived for years in Winchester, Kentucky but recently have moved to Lexington and are living at Richmond Place.