Stephen L. Wasby was born in 1937 in Boston, Massachusetts, and grew up in Belmont, Massachusetts. He studied at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Oregon, and then did graduate studies at the University of Oregon in Eugene, where he earned a master's degree and then a doctorate in political science in 1961 and 1962, respectively. Wasby began his teaching career at Southeast Missouri State College and at Minnesota's Moorhead State College. After serving as an American Political Science Association Congressional fellow for Representatives John Moss and Ralph Yarborough, he taught at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale from 1966 to 1978. He then taught at the University at Albany State University of New York until 1999, when he retired.

Wasby was a prolific writer: he wrote articles in professional journals and law reviews, and authored, co-authored, or edited more than a dozen books. Much of Wasby's published scholarship was dedicated to studying the United States Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals; he also wrote a biography of Ninth Circuit judge Alfred T. Goodwin (1923-2022). His last book, published in 2018, was "Borrowed Judges: Visitors in the U.S. Courts of Appeals." His last article, published posthumously in the University of the Pacific Law Review, was "Case Consolidation and GVRs in the Supreme Court." Wasby died in August 2021 in Eastham, Massachusetts.

Sources: Obituary in the Belmont Citizen-Herald, August 12, 2021, https://www.wickedlocal.com/obituaries/belmont-citizen-herald_cn13976749 (accessed January 8, 2025); "A Life in Judging: Ted Goodwin of Oregon," by Stephen L. Wasby, (Eastham, Mass.: published by author, 2015); collection materials.