[1] Roger Montgomery was born in New York City to parents Graham Livingston Montgomery and Anne Cook and lived in Greenwich Village until 1930, when he moved to Port Washington, Long Island.
He attended a John Dewey-influenced grade school in Port Washington.
Montgomery began his architectural work in 1948 as an apprentice in Springfield, Ohio and was soon successful, in part because of a shortage of architects and large post-war boom in construction.
From 1955 to 1956, he attended the Harvard Graduate School of Design[3] where he received a Masters of Architecture degree under professors Josep Lluís Sert and Sigfried Giedion, while studying with classmates Fumihiko Maki and Ben Weese.
Montgomery married Oberlin College graduate Mary Hoyt.