Jim DeVoe (Sponsoring Editor and author of “Lucky Me Too!”), born in Schenectady, New York, is the first-born son of a career Air Force officer and grew up attending multiple schools, both Catholic and public, in multiple states as a “military brat”. He played competitive baseball at the highest available level from age eight to eighteen, with his father as his trainer and biggest fan. Jim attended the University of Notre Dame, where he went from a freshman in the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) to a senior pursuing Conscientious Objector status—a classification his father, then an Air Force Colonel, supported in writing (despite the risk for his own future advancement). 

After fulfilling his alternate service, Jim taught high school before beginning a sales and editorial career of nearly 40 years in educational publishing at the college and industrial/vocational levels. Now a long-time resident of Lawrenceville, New Jersey, Jim and his high school sweetheart, Sylvia, have been married for over 50 years. They are involved in the lives of their children and grandchildren on a daily basis. Jim’s interests include daily movement routines, organic nutrition, and an ongoing interest in "what’s new & what’s next". He is an avid fan of horse racing, and an annual pilgrimage to Saratoga, New York is the highlight of his handicapping year.

Scott Stratford (Managing Editor and author of “Two Blades of Grass Where One Blade Grew Before”), born in Billings, Montana, is the middle son of a wheat farmer whose family homesteaded south of Billings beginning in 1910. Scott and his two brothers worked on the farm as soon as they could handle heavy equipment. He graduated from Stanford University and intended to embrace his father’s occupation while pursuing a writing career, but soon relocated to the Boston area and worked for McGraw-Hill’s College Division in sales and editorial roles for 17 years. He then transitioned into an at-home parent role for his daughter and son while serving on a local school board and in other town government positions. Scott and his wife Holly moved to Chicago in 2022 to help their daughter raise her family. They spend as much time in Montana each year as possible.

Scott’s father, seeking to escape Depression-era poverty, attempted to enroll at Montana State University in 1938 but could not find work for his living expenses and had to hitchhike back to Billings. Scott now endows a modest scholarship in his father’s memory at MSU to help first-year Agriculture students meet their initial needs.