Edward Clinton Ezell was born November 7, 1939 in Indianapolis, Indiana. He received his A.B. from Butler University in 1961, his M.A. from the University of Delaware in 1963, and his Ph.D. in the history of science and technology from Case Institute of Technology in 1969.

Ezell taught at North Carolina State University from 1966-1970, and was a founding faculty member of Sangamon State University, hired as an Assistant Professor of History. After leaving Sangamon State in 1972, he worked as the vice president of operations for Interarms, a small-arms trading company, and later worked as a historian for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration at the Johnson Space Center in Houston for eight years. From 1982 he worked at the Smithsonian Institution, first as a curator in the Division of Armed Forces and later as the acting department chairman. Ezell was an expert on small arms technology and published multiple written works on the subject.

Ezell passed away on December 23, 1993.

Holly Everding was born in 1946 in Mathews, Virginia. She married Edward Ezell on August 12, 1968. She was a student at Sangamon State University, pursuing her M.A. in Justice and the Social Order. Holly Everding Ezell passed away at home in 1971, at the age of 25.