Loren K. Davidson was born in 1922 in Two Ridges, Ohio, the son of a Presbyterian minister. Inducted into the Army in 1943, and serving in the Aleutians and the European Theater, he was discharged as Captain in 1947, but was recalled to active duty during Korean War during which he served in Europe (1951-1953). He retired from the Army Reserve Corps as full Colonel, Infantry, in 1976. He received his B.A. from Asbury College, Wilmore Ky. (1943); M.A. in English, University of Kentucky (1950); Diploma in English Studies, Edinburgh University, Edinburgh, Scotland (1953-54); and Ph.D. in English with a dissertation on Walt Whitman ’ s Song of Myself, Duke University (1959). He taught undergraduate and graduate English, specializing in American literature and civilization, in Ohio University in Athens, Ohio; the American College for Girls and Istanbul University in Turkey, and University of Pittsburgh and Duquesne University in Pittsburgh from 1956 until he retired in 1987. His primary field was American literature. He was Senior Fulbright Professor, Universidad Catolica, Santiago, Chile, for a year and a half (1975-76). He traveled widely in Africa, the Middle East, Europe and UK, and South America. He has five children and resides in a post-Revolutionary ancestral stone house outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The other two raftsmen, Dr. Robert Hogan and John Violette had long noteworthy careers in higher education. Hogan was scholar and writer, chiefly at the University of Delaware, and Violette served in the Peace Corps and later returned to develop an English language program for Nigeria, under the aegis of Southern Illinois University.