A native of Beaumont, TX, Dr. Robert A. Wooster received his bachelor's and master's degrees from Lamar University. He then earned his doctorate from the University of Texas in Austin in 1985 before accepting a history faculty position at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, where the taught for thirty-five years. While at A&M-Corpus Christi, Wooster also served for three years as chair of the Department of Humanities and was twice elected Speaker if the Faculty Senate.

In 2005, he was elected president of the Texas State Historical Association, the state's oldest academic society and in 2008, he was named a Regents Professor by the Texas A&M System Board of Regents. In addition, Wooster has served as the Civilian Deputy Director of the U.S. Military Academy/ROTC Military History Workshop at West Point, the Price Daniel, Sr., Scholar in Residence, the Texas State Historical Association's Visiting Scholar, and an editorial advisory board member for numerous scholarly journals and university presses.

He has written ten books, most notably The Military and United States Indian Policy, 1865-1902 (1988), Nelson A. Miles and the Twilight of the Frontier Army (1993), The American Military Frontiers: The United States Army and the West 1782-1900 (2009), and The United States Army and the Making of America: From Confederation to Empire, 1775-1903 (2021).