Earl Rhode was born in 1929. He grew up and completed grade school and high school in Pardeeville, Wisconsin. Encouraged by their father, he and his brother, Merwin, spent a great deal of time hunting and fishing along the Fox River as youths. After marriage to his high school sweetheart, Carol, in 1953, he and his wife lived for a number of years in Milwaukee and also Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. He and his wife have lived back in Pardeeville now for many years and have been married for 60 years. They have two sons, six grandchildren and one great-grandson. The author still enjoys hunting and fishing on the Fox River and lives on Park Lake in Pardeeville.