A. Cleveland Harrison (Allie Cleveland Harrison) was a professor of the dramatic arts for over forty years. He was born in 1924 in McRae, Arkansas to Allie and Floy Harrison. He was a G.I. in the U.S. Army during World War II and was stationed in various outposts including Berlin, Germany. In 1945, while stationed in Frankfurt, Cleveland became an official Army correspondent and helped write a weekly column for "The Grooper", the official Army newspaper for military government personnel. After the war, in 1946, Harrison married Marian Blair “Tumpy” Gammill and the couple later had a son and a daughter. Harrison finished his educational path while working as a professor. Harrison earned an A.A. degree from Little Rock Junior College (1946) before earning a B.S. in Speech and English (1949) and an M.A. in Communications (1951) from The Ohio State University. He then earned an M.A. in Play Directing from the University of Arkansas (1957) and a Ph.D. in Theatre and Drama from the University of Kansas (1967).

In 1949, Harrison became an English instructor at Little Rock Junior College and established a drama program at the school in 1951. He taught and led the program until 1958 when he became a theatre professor at U of A Fayetteville. In 1970, Harrison left U of A to work at the School of Fine Arts at Auburn University in Alabama as head of the Department of Theatre. There, he worked for twenty-one years and helped revise the curriculum for the undergraduate theatre program and oversaw the design and construction of the Telfair B. Peet Theatre. During his time at Auburn, Harrison received membership in the National Association of Schools of Theatre. In addition to producing numerous plays as a professor at U of A and Auburn (at times he produced nine per semester and directed two per year), Harrison also performed in three plays at Auburn. In 1991, Harrison was given the Theatre Hall of Fame Award for “distinguished contributions and enduring dedication as a past pioneer in Alabama Theatre” by the Alabama Conference of Theatre and Speech. Also in 1991, Harrison retired from the Auburn faculty but remained in town with his wife. He produced several scholarly contributions and writings about English-American playwright, director, and actor Dion Boucicault, contributed to several academic publications, wrote a one-act play titled “The Ladies of Fashion”, and also wrote published memoirs (the most well-known is "Unsung Valor") about his time in the Army, as well as for the Pulaski County Historical Society. He received several awards for his military service. A. Cleveland Harrison died of leukemia in 2012.