Burton Egbert Stevenson was born in Chillicothe, Ohio in 1872. He attended Princeton University from 1890-1893; during this time, he was a correspondent for United Press and the New York Tribune. He married Elizabeth Shepard Butler in 1895, their marriage lasting 65 years, and returned to Chillicothe, where he was the librarian for more than 60 years. During World War I, Mr. Stevenson was instrumental in efforts to connect soldiers to periodicals from their hometowns, and in establishing a library at Camp Sherman. He was also with the American Library in Paris, where he was the director from 1918-1920, and from 1925-1930. As an author and anthologist, Mr. Stevenson is credited with four young adult novels and 12 anthologies, along with more than 20 other books. As part of his legacy, Burton E. Stevenson created this endowment to “be devoted solely and entirely to the service of the under-privileged children of Ross County, Ohio…without discrimination as to race, sex, or religion, with the purpose of removing, or at least lessening, such handicaps as they may have started in life with, and to fit them, as far as it is possible to do so, to lead successful and happy lives.”