Arthur Dwight Smith (1907-1993) was born in Brigham City. He attended Weber College (now Weber State University) and the Utah State Agricultural College (now Utah State University) and graduated with a bachelor of science degree in 1936. A year later he finished a masters degree in forestry from the University of California, Berkeley and he returned to Utah State University where he held a cooperative appointment between the Range Science department and the Utah Fish and Game Department. He held this appointment (except for the years 1942-1946 when he served in the Army) until his retirement in 1973. In 1956 he finished a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. In 1943 Smith co-authored the book Range Management with Lawrence Stoddart. This book remained for many years the standard introductory textbook for the profession. Smith was also a founding member of the Society for Range Management and served on the National Public Land Law Review Commission from 1966-1969.

Raymond J. Becraft (1890-1938) was born in Ogden, Utah. He graduated from the Utah State Agricultural college in 1917 and became the first professor of range management at Utah State. He served in this position until 1935 when he became a professor of forestry at the University of Idaho. One year later he was named the regional head of the Division of Plant Ecology for the Forest Service in Portland, Oregon. In 1938, after suffering head trauma, Becraft became insane and killed his wife, son and himself.