Joseph Baker Dent, Sr., was born on August 14, 1904, in Wythe County, Virginia, and died on May 6, 1996, in Chester, Virginia. In the 1920s, he attended Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College and Polytechnic Institute (VPI) as an undergraduate and was a member of the Corps of Cadets. He graduated in 1926 with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering and in 1931 with a Master of Science degree at the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas (Texas A&M). From 1937 to 1972, Dent was a member of the faculty at VPI's College of Engineering, serving first as Associate Professor of Engineering Drawing and Descriptive Geometry. In 1959, he became Professor of Graphics; in 1964, Professor of Industrial Engineering; and from 1969 until his retirement in 1972, Professor of Engineering Fundamentals. Following his retirement, he published Fundamentals of Engineering Graphics in 1974.