Dr. Richard C. Pillsbury attended the University of Maryland at College Park for a short while and then transferred to Trinity University in San Antonio, where he earned his Bachelor of Arts in history and a Bachelor of Science in biology. He went on to attend medical school at the University of Texas at San Antonio. His internship and residencies followed, culminating at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. He then spent three years in the U.S. Army practicing ear, nose and throat surgery. He relocated to El Dorado, Arkansas, where he practiced medicine successfully for 35 years. He retired in 2014 and began another career as an artist. He had always wanted to write, so, in 2015, he began, and Jake was born.