This article presents an interview with Robert G. Holmberg, professor emeritus at Athabasca University (AU). He retired at the end of 2007 following a thirty-three-year academic career at AU in Edmonton and Athabasca, Alberta, Canada. During that time he oversaw the development and delivery of several of the university's first courses. He helped author thirteen and administer eighteen different distance education (DE) courses in biology, ecology, environmental science, and general science. Holmberg's biological research centers on the ecology and behavior of arthropods, especially arachnids. He has also published in the area of science education. He served as associate dean of arts and sciences from 1988 to 1990. From 1993 to 1995, he was the Canadian program manager at Universitas Pattimura, part of the Eastern Indonesian Universities Development Project, under funding by the Canadian International Development Agency. Holmberg has given over 250 science presentations to public audiences in Alberta and beyond. He was a co-founder of Science Outreach-Athabasca, which aims to improve scientific literacy of the general public in the greater Athabasca region as well as promote knowledge about the Athabasca River Basin. He is known in the Athabasca area as the "Spider Man" because of his reputation for school presentations in which he shows students photographs as well as live and dead arachnids. He is an avid photographer. To honor his legacy, in April 2009 AU officially renamed its science laboratory the Robert Holmberg Athabasca University Science Laboratory. In this interview, Holmberg talks about how he joined Athabasca University, the importance of laboratories in learning, and his experience with in-person labs as well as home labs. (Contains 1 note.)