He was born in Winchester, Indiana, and was known as a tireless advocate for the local stage and theatrical scene in the many places he lived during his long career.
From 1970 to 1987, he was a film and arts critic for WUSA-TV (formerly WTOP and WDVM), the CBS affiliate in Washington, DC.
He enunciated with theatrical bravura and often wore large black-rimmed glasses and sometimes sported an Alpine hat.
In 1997 he won the "Excellence in Theatre Education Award" from the Board of Governors of the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival.
First published in Kenneth Macgowan's A Primer of Playwriting, the book he considered to be the best ever written on the art of building plays, PASTO stands for: PASTO was the foundation of both his personal directing and the play analysis taught to his students at UNLV.