Jeanne Ruth Merifield Beck received her B.A. in Honours History from the University of Toronto in 1949, and her Ph.D in 1977 from McMaster University, Hamilton. She taught Canadian history at McMaster from 1975 to 1988. From 1979 to 1993 she was Assistant Editor and Secretary-Treasurer of the Ontario Historical Studies Series, whose mandate was to commission and publish a collection of thirty-one books on the history of Ontario. On the completion of this project she began work on the biography of Sister Catherine Donnelly, which is a subject with particular appeal, for it combines two of her main historical interests: pioneering Canadian teachers and Canadian social and religious history.

As a resident of the town of Dundas, Ontario, and a parent of three daughters, the betterment of public education has long been one of her main goals. She was a school trustee representing Dundas on the Wentworth County Board of Education from 1966 until she retired from the Board in 1988 in order to devote more time to editing and writing history.