Robert Powell was born on December 12, 1938 in Atlanta, Georgia. He graduated from Morehouse College in 1959 with a Bachelor of Arts and by 1964 had earned a Bachelor of Divinity and Master of Arts from Canada’s McGill University. He was ordained to the diaconate in 1963, the same year he received a Licentiate in Theology from Montreal Diocesan Theological College, and to the priesthood in 1964. He received a Doctor of Divinity degree from Christ Theological Seminary in 1980.

Canon Powell’s service began in 1963 as an assistant curate at Saint Peter’s Anglican Church in Quebec, Canada. In 1966 he became the vicar at Saint Augustine’s Episcopal Church in Newport News, Virginia. From 1969 until his death in 1981, he worked for the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA (NCCC). There he served as the chief administrator for cooperative missions conducted by twenty denominations on the African continent. His other positions included Director of the Committee on Ecumenical Scholarships and Theological Education (1969-1972); Mission Director of the Africa Working Group (1972-1973); Executive Director for Strategy, Technical and Area Program Department (1973-1975); and Executive Director of the Africa Committee in Overseas Ministries (1975-1981). Although he died before its first meeting in 1985, Powell worked alongside Rev. Canon Frederick Boyd Williams and the Rt. Rev. Walter D. Dennis, to form a conference for Black Anglicans worldwide: the International Conference on Afro-Anglicanism.

In addition to his work with the NCCC, Canon Powell also served as a Canon for the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Botswana, as secretary of the Diocesan Liturgical Committee, and as a member of the Union of Black Clergy and Laity and the African Academy of Arts and Science.