Necah Stewart Furman earned her doctorate at the University of New Mexico and other degrees from the University of Texas system. She is author or co-author of seven books, two of which were nominated for the Pulitzer Prize including one that received the Society for Technical Communications Award for Excellence. She has also published numerous articles, reviews, and monographs on subjects ranging from celebrities to nuclear reactors. Of all these, however, Furman claims that the most memorable was her selection by famous classic car designer Ray Dietrich and wife Marion to write his biography. She had already published an article on Dietrich in The Classic Car magazine and subsequently would publish additional articles on various aspects of his design philosophy and career in The Dearborn Historian and Classic Cars Seen. Furman recalls her interaction and resulting friendship with Dietrich as being “a rare privilege and opportunity to preserve the legacy of one referred to as ‘the automotive architect of the Classic Era.’”