William Frank Eugene Reed Gurley was born on June 5, 1854, in Oswego, New York.

He was a paleontologist and educator. In 1861, he had measles which gave him temporary blindness, but he suffered from visual impairment until he went completely blind at age 64. At a young age, William began collecting fossils, shells, minerals, and geological specimens. His collection of fossils from Quincy, Michigan, a region where his family moved, grew and he soon began trading and exchanging for geological and fossil specimens from other regions. In 1871, the Imperial-Royal Geology Society of Austria made him a corresponding member. In 1873, he entered Cornell University and was invited as a charter member of the Swiss Paleontological Society. In 1876, he mined for gold in Colorado. In 1877, he helped found the Vermilion County Historical Society. In 1879, he was a founder of the State Historical Society of Illinois. He served as city engineer of Danville, Illinois (1885-1887, 1891-1893). In 1888, he was a founding charter member of the Geological Society of America. In 1893, he was appointed the State Geologist and museum curator of the Illinois State Museum of Natural History (1893-1897). He was a Professor of Paleontology at the University of Chicago. He also had been president of the Illinois Society of the Sons of the Revolution as well as vice-president of the national society.

In 1880, he married Anna Sophronia Barnes (1850-1918). He died on June 27, 1943, in Chicago, Illinois.

Ralph Barker Gustafson was born on August 16, 1909, in Lime Ridge, Estrie Region, Quebec.

He was a Canadian poet and professor. He was educated at Bishop's University (B.A., 1929; M.A., 1930) and Kebble College, Oxford (B.A., 1933; M.A., 1963). After a short teaching position in Canada, he returned to England (1933-1939), where he published his first two collections of poetry. During the war, he worked for the British Information Services in New York (1942-1946). From 1963 he lived in North Hatley, Quebec, where he worked as Professor and Poet-In-Residence at Bishop's (1963–1979), a music critic for CBC radio since 1960, and a freelance writer and anthologist editing various editions of the Penguin Book of Canadian Verse. He wrote over twenty volumes of poetry, e.g., "The Golden Chalice (1935), "Lyrics Unromantic" (1942), "Sift in an Hourglass" (1966), "Configurations at Midnight" (1992), and two books of stories, "The Brazen Tower" (1974) and "The Vivid Air" (1980). "The Collected Poems of Ralph Gustafson" were published in three volumes between 1987 and 1994. His last book, published posthumously, was "Visions Fugitive" (1996). He was awarded honorary degrees from Mount Allison University (D.Litt, 1973), Bishop's University (D.C.L., 1977), and York University (D.Litt., 1991). Gustafson won the 1974 Governor General's Award for "Fire on Stone" and was appointed to the Order of Canada in 1992.

In 1958, he married Elizabeth Renninger (1920-2009). He died on May 29, 1995, in North Hatley, Estrie Region, Quebec.