George Davis Herron was born in 1862. A Congregational Church minister, he became a Christian Socialist and his radical religious views were expressed in his book, A Plea for the Gospel (1892).

In 1893 Herron was appointed as professor of Applied Christianity at Grinnell College. After his resignation in 1899 he joined the American Socialist Party and married Carrie Rand. Together they founded the Rand School of Social Science. During the First World War Herron worked for peace as an emissary of President Woodrow Wilson.

George Davis Herron died in 1925.