Robrt Mellin graduated with distinction from Pennsylvania State University with a Bachelor of Architecture in 1973.

He is a registered member of the Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Architects, a Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada and an Associate Professor in the School of Architecture at McGill University.

In recognition of his architectural design and heritage conservation work, Mr. Mellin was elected to membership in the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 2002 and he currently serves as a vice-president. He is Past Chair of the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador. He is also a member of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada and the Vernacular Architectural Forum.

Mr. Mellin is an accomplished author having written three books on architecture and life in Newfoundland and Labrador. Tilting: House Launching, Slide Hauling, Potato Trenching and Other Tales from a Newfoundland Fishing Village was published in 2003 and was a first place winner of the BMO Winterset Literary Award. He also wrote Newfoundland Modern: Architecture in the Smallwood Years, 1949-1972 and Winter in Tilting: Slide Hauling in a Newfoundland Outport. In addition, Mr. Mellin has written numerous journal articles on various aspects of architecture that are insightful into both the Canadian and international contexts.

Mr. Mellin received a Manning Award and nine Southcott Awards (Newfoundland Historic Trust) for his heritage conservation work in Newfoundland and Labrador. He received the 2006 Paul E. Buchanan Award for excellence in fieldwork and interpretation from the Vernacular Architecture Forum.

He was made a member of the Order of Canada in 2014, and Memorial University presented him with an honorary doctorate in 2015. In receiving the Order of Canada, Mr. Mellin was noted for his commitment to preserving the built heritage of Newfoundland and Labrador and his efforts in Tilting to help save the residents’ cultural heritage by preserving their houses, stages, flakes and root cellars.