A native of Mitchell and a Stratford resident since 1969, Dean Robinson holds sociology and journalism degrees from the University of Western Ontario (London, Ontario), since renamed  Western University. 

He became hooked on journalism when, as a high school student, he contributed stories to the Mitchell Advocate. In 1965, he joined the London Free Press and worked on newspapers and magazines, and at radio and television stations in London, Kitchener, Seaforth and Stratford, until 1982. He taught journalism at the Doon campus of Conestoga College from 1989 to 2001.