Thurston attended the Clarion Workshop at Clarion State College, Pennsylvania in 1968, instructed by several major sci-fi writers (Kate Wilhelm, Damon Knight, Fritz Leiber, and Harlan Ellison, among others).
He did graduate studies in English literature at the University of Buffalo and was a veteran of the United States Army.
[2] He was awarded first prize for his short story "Set of Wheels," which was included, with two other short stories ("Anaconda" and "The Last Desperate Hour") in the anthology Clarion, edited by the workshop's founder, Robin Scott Wilson, in 1971.
FASA signed an agreement with Roc Publishing in 1991 that lasted for 10 years and started a long line of publication with Robert Thurston's Legend of the Jade Phoenix series for Battletech (1991).
He had worked at New Jersey City University's Opportunity Scholarship Program as Coordinator of Supplemental Instruction, since 1992.