Robert F. Karolevitz was born on April 26, 1922, at Sacred Heart Hospital in Yankton, South Dakota. He began his writing career in high school as editor of the school newspaper and yearbook and contributed a sports column to the Yankton Public Opinion. After graduating from Yankton High School in 1940, he studied printing and journalism at South Dakota State College. During World War II, he served with the U.S. Army Infantry in Japan and the Philippines, rising to the rank of captain. As division historian for the 25th Infantry, he authored his first book, The 25th Infantry Division and World War II, published in 1946.

Following his military service, Karolevitz earned a B.S. in Printing and Rural Journalism from South Dakota State College in 1948 and later completed a master’s degree in journalism at the University of Oregon. Recalled to active duty during the Korean War, he served as a public-information officer and feature writer for the U.S. Eighth Army, contributing articles and organizing homecoming events for returning soldiers.

In the 1950s and 60s, Karolevitz and his wife, Phyllis, lived in Seattle, Washington, where he worked in public relations, advertising, and political ghostwriting. He gained recognition as a popular historian with the publication of Newspapering in the Old West (1965), for which he received a Sigma Delta Chi excellence award. After nearly two decades in Washington, the Karolevitz family returned to South Dakota, where he continued his writing career, producing a prolific body of work focused on regional history and culture.

Karolevitz authored nearly forty books, including Where Your Heart Is: The Story of Harvey Dunn, which won the National Cowboy Hall of Fame Wrangler Award; Challenge: The South Dakota Story, written for the South Dakota Division of Elementary and Secondary Education and honored by Augustana College's Center for Western Studies; and Flight of Eagles, co-authored with Ross Fenn, which earned the Polish Gold Merit Cross. His newspaper columns, Writer at Large and The Way It Was, appeared in various South Dakota publications and were later compiled into books such as Tears in My Horseradish and Toulouse the Goose.

Deeply involved in civic and historical institutions, Karolevitz served on numerous boards, including the South Dakota Hall of Fame, South Dakota State Historical Society, and Sacred Heart Hospital. He was instrumental in the establishment of the South Dakota State Historical Society Press and served as president of the South Dakota State University Alumni Association. Over his career, he received numerous honors for his literary and public service contributions, including the South Dakota Hall of Fame induction (1973), Distinguished Citizen of the Year (1981), and the Bishop Dudley Media Award (2004).

Karolevitz’s legacy reflects his lifelong dedication to documenting and promoting the history, people, and culture of South Dakota and the American Midwest.