Abraham G. Osler was born in New York City in 1911, and received his Ph.D. in Bacteriology from Columbia University in 1948. During the 1930's, Osler worked as a bacteriologist at Bronx Hospital from where he was fired for trying to organize the hospital workers. In the early 1940's, he was hired by the NYC Health Department. Osler moved to Baltimore in 1948 where he became Professor of Immunology in the Department of Microbiology at Johns Hopkins Medical School. Twenty years later, he moved back to New York City to become Chairman Department of Medical Immunology at the Public Health Research Institute. He died March 2004.

Sonia F. Osler was born in Pruchnik, Poland in 1912. She married Abraham Osler in 1938. She received her Ph.D. in Psychology from Johns Hopkins University in 1953. From 1954 to 1962, she was Professor of Psychology at Goucher College in Baltimore. From 1962 to 1968 she was Associate Professor of Medical Psychology and Pediatrics at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. In 1968 Sonia Osler moved to New York City with her husband to become Professor at the Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies at the Adelphi University. She died August 1999.