Brent Ashabranner was born on November 3, 1921, in Shawnee, Oklahoma. In 1941 he married Martha White, and the couple later had two daughters. After serving in the U.S. Navy from 1942 to 1945, he earned his bachelor's and master's degrees at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater.

Following his graduation in 1952, Ashabranner taught at Oklahoma State University until 1956, when he began work as an educational materials adviser in Ethiopia, Libya, and Nigeria for the U.S. Agency for International Development. Beginning in 1961, Ashabranner worked for the Peace Corps, as a director in Nigeria and India, and eventually as the acting deputy director.

Born in Boston on October 29, 1922, Russell Gerard Davis attended Dartmouth College before transferring to Holy Cross College, where he received his bachelor's degree in 1943. In 1946 he married Mary Elizabeth Carroll, with whom he raised seven children. Over the next nine years, Davis taught at Cranwell School...