Born in February of 1937, Robert Edwin Field grew up in the Greater Philadelphia area. He spent two years at Oberlin College in Ohio then graduated in 1959 from the University of California at Berkeley with a major in Economics.
In his late twenties, he launched a successful career developing, building and managing garden apartment complexes in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and New Jersey, trading as Manor Communities. He also developed, built and managed five hotels that decades later were sold.
Field had long felt that drug prohibition was largely going down the same unsuccessful path as alcohol prohibition. In 1995 he and Kevin Zeese co-founded Common Sense for Drug Policy, a pioneer organization espousing drug policy reform.
Its annual booklet, Drug War Facts, evolved into DrugPolicyFacts.org. The web site’s content has grown and it has had twelve million visitors over twenty years. The site is continuously expanded and updated by its editor Doug McVay.
Starting in 2019, Field and McVay launched World Health Systems Facts to better acquaint policy makers, journalists, academics and the public with the different types of health care systems throughout the world. Their belief is that such knowledge may enable the USA to improve health care quality, reduce costs, and provide healthcare to all of its population.
Both DrugPolicyFacts.org and WordHealthSystemsFacts.org are continuously enlarged and updated.
Field and McVay share the view that an informed public will over time tend to make better decision.