Robert Percy Cummings was born on 11 September 1900 in Kelvin Grove, Brisbane. He began evening classes at the Central Technical College in 1916 and obtained his Diploma of Architecture in 1923. The following year he won the Queensland Wattle League's architectural scholarship. In 1927 he was awarded the Rome scholarship in architecture. He later studied at the Architectural Association School in London, earning a Diploma of Architecture in 1928. Cummings returned to Brisbane in 1930 and, from 1936, partnered with Frederick Lucas in the architectural firm Lucas and cummings. When the University of Queensland's Faculty of Engineering introduced a part-time architecture diploma course in 1937, Cummings was appointed lecturer. A Faculty of Architecture was established in 1948, having instituted a degree course the previous year, and in 1949 Cummings was appointed foundation professor. He died on 27 September 1989.