Dr. Joseph Edwin Vaile was born in 1902 in Kokomo, Indiana. He studied horticulture at the University of Illionis Urbana-Champaign where he received his bachelor, masters and doctorate degrees and graduated with a PHD in 1933. Soon after, he became a professor in the Department of Horticulture at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville campus. He authored many horticultural publications, was a member of Sigma Xi Scientific and Alpha Chi Rho fraternities, the American Society of Horticultrual Science, the Fayetteville Kiwanis Club and the First United Presbyterian Church in Fayetteville. He worked with and served as the treasurer for the Arkansas State Horticultural Society as well as adjacent organizations in Kansas and Illinois to research crop growth including proper planting methods, harvesting, gardening, the use of weed killers, and more. He also taught classes at the Agricultural Experiment Station at U of A and collaborated with international horticultural colleagues throughout his years at the university on topics such as poultry production and farming. He died in 1978.