Harold Swenson Fink was born in Garland, Texas on September 16, 1903. He earned his BS (1925) and MA (1929) from the University of Minnesota and his PhD (1936) from Princeton University. Fink began his professional career at Hibbing Junior College in 1934 and married Magnhild Esther Ordal of River Falls, Wisconsin on December 5, 1942. He was commissioned a Lieutenant in the U.S. Naval Reserve in 1942 and served on Saipan before being discharged at the rank of Lieutenant Commander in 1945. An internationally recognized specialist on the Crusades, Fink joined the University of Tennessee's History Department in 1946 and taught until his retirement in 1974. He was also deeply interested in local history and researched the subject extensively. Harold Fink died on October 4, 1981 in Knoxville, Tennessee.