Richard Spellenberg and Naida Zucker, husband and wife, spent their professional careers in the Biology Department at New Mexico State University (NMSU) in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Richard received his Ph.D. in botany from the University of Washington in Seattle in 1968. His doctoral research focused on the relationships and taxonomy of hotspring grasses in the Pacific Northwest. He began teaching and studying the taxonomy of western North American plants at NMSU that same year, retiring in 2000.

Naida received her Ph.D. in animal behavior from the University of Illinois in Urbana in 1973. Her research on mating systems in fiddler crabs took her to Panama and later to Australia, where she continued her studies. She joined the faculty at New Mexico State University in 1973 and taught general biology, zoology, invertebrate zoology, and animal behavior, in addition to several graduate courses.