Michael Shane Bird (June 6, 1941-October 27, 2003) was a professor, researcher, and writer who specialized in fine arts, in particular Canadian folk and fraktur, and film studies. Born in Belle Plaine, Iowa to Arthur Bird and Katherine McHugh, he attained his PhD from the University of Iowa before moving to Waterloo to teach at Renison University College. Bird taught at Renison for 34 years in both fine arts and religious studies, two topics that he also researched and wrote extensively on. He was particularly interested in religious themes in cinema, including the works of Ingmar Bergman, and Canadian folk and fraktur art. He wrote, or co-wrote, some of the first compendiums on folk art and furniture in Canada. He also wrote on fraktur art in the Pennsylvania German style, and on fraktur found in Waterloo region. On top of writing, he curated a number of exhibits in Waterloo and elsewhere on folk and fraktur art. He was closely connected with the Joseph Schneider Haus, where he gave many talks, curated exhibits, and ultimately donated to the bulk of his Canadian folk art collection.
Bird married Joan Welch in 1966 with whom he had two children. In 1979 he married Terry Kobayashi who was a frequent collaborator of his on writing on Canadian folk art, and in collecting the same. In 1992 he married Susan Hyde and in 1994 they adopted a child from China. Bird and Hyde researched and wrote a number of texts including a book on wooden churches of Cape Breton. Bird died of heart failure on October 27, 2003.

Teruko ‘Terry’ Kobayashi was an art historian who wrote about Canadian folk arts. Born in British Columbia, she received her BA from the University of Toronto in 1966, and also attended the Ontario College of Education. She co-authored two books on folk art and furniture, published a number of articles in the 1970s and 1980s, and received the Dr. J.S.B. Robinson Travelling Fellowship Award in 1987, and an Ontario Educational Research Grant in 1974. She also served as head of the art department at Eastwood Collegiate Institute, and was a fine artist herself who was active in the local arts community. She was a member of the K-W (Kitchener-Waterloo) Society of Artists, and many of her publications were focused on art and artists in Ontario and the Kitchener-Waterloo area, where she lived. She was also an accomplished musician and a long-standing member of the K-W Philharmonic Choir.