Robert Howard was born in Montreal around 1851 and spent his childhood there. By 1871, he had moved to St. Jean, Quebec. He graduated in Medicine from McGill University in 1874, with a M.D., C.M. degree.

He kept an office at the corner of McCumming and Lemoine streets in St. Jean, where he practiced medicine as an allophatic doctor. His Irish father, Henry, was also a doctor and was superintendent at L'Hospice des Aliénés, an asylum and, according to an 1870 newspaper, Henry had invented a system for ventilating apartments.

He had been ill for several years before his early death in 1888, having gone to Europe for his health.