R.B. Herbert, Jr. was born in Columbia on July 23, 1916, the son of Robert Beverley Herbert and Georgia Hull Herbert. He was married to Heloise Weston Gibbes, who survived him along with their four children.
He received a B.A. degree in 1939 and an LL.B. degree in 1941 from the University of South Carolina. He was admitted to the Bar in 1941. During World War II, he served in the United States Naval Intelligence and commanded an underwater demolition team, commonly known as “frogmen”, earning a field promotion to the rank of Lieutenant Commander.
He joined the firm of Herbert and Dial founded by his distinguished father. His memberships included American, South Carolina and Richland County Bar Associations (President in 1963), the American Judicature Society, Phi Delta Phi Legal Fraternity, and the Fourth United States Judicial Circuit Judicial Conference.
He sponsored the first legal aid or lawyer referral service in the State of South Carolina, chaired the Bar committee which created the new Richland County Judicial Center, served as President of the South Carolina Society for Aphasic Children and as Chairman of the Commissioners for the South Carolina School of the Deaf and Blind at Cedar Springs during its extensive expansion of facilities, as a member of the Kosmos and Torch Clubs and was, for many years, the preparer of the memorials for “Memory Hold the Door.” He was respected as a leading and effective practitioner, intensely loyal to his clients and to his professional responsibilities. He will be remembered for leadership in programs to improve the administration of justice and to enhance public respect for law and the legal profession.