Eugene Transou Liipfert was born in Winston Salem, North Carolina, on April 24, 1918.  He was a lawyer in Washington, DC.  He married his wife, Anne, on May 15, 1944, and had two sons, John Turney Liipfert (February 15, 1947) and Christian Eugene Liipfert (April 2, 1951).  After his wife died, he remarried Dixie Frederichs King in 1985.  He died in October 2000.

Eugene graduated from Davidson College and then went to graduate school at Vanderbilt University, where he earned a degree in History.  After serving in the Army Air Corps, he attended Harvard Law School, graduating in 1948.