Rusty Glicksman was born in Livingston, NJ. He graduated from George Washington University in Washington, DC. After receiving a Master’s Degree from McGill University he assumed a teaching position there for several years, until accepting a position at Brandeis University, ultimately settling outside Boston.An intrepid traveler, in the 1970s he traveled through Europe to Central Asia, visited the Dalai Lama, and entered Iran just as the revolution began. He built a jewelry business, Earth-Door Sky-Door, that started with jewlery designed by his beloved wife Rita.