Arthur Ballard Massey, the son of botanist W. F. Massey, was born in Albemarle County, Virginia in 1889. After graduating from North Carolina State University in 1909, the younger Massey studied in Florida and Chicago. Meanwhile, he also served as an instructor of botany at Clemson University from 1910 to 1913, then as assistant botanist for the Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station from 1913 to 1918. In the latter year, Massey was hired by Virginia Polytechnic Institute as a bacteriologist in the school's botany department. He would earn his master's degree at VPI in 1928. In addition to his duties as an instructor, which included teaching all bacteriology courses, Massey held an appointment on the research staff of the Agricultural Experiment Station. In 1935, Massey became botanist for the Virginia Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit, a position that included instruction and that he would hold until retirement. Massey is also credited with establishing the university's herbarium, depositing within it more than 25,000 specimens, and was an instrumental force in the creation of the Mountain Lake Biological Station. Arthur Ballard Massey retired in 1959 and died in 1981.