Su Zan Noguchi Swain Firmage was born March 8, 1916, Iliff, Colorado to Minosuke and Tomi Noguchi. Her parents were immigrants to the United States from Japan. Su Zan received her B.S. in fine arts with a minor in biology from the University of Colorado in 1938. She married Ralph Brownlee Swain, an entomologist, and illustrated several books and guides they worked on together. They had two sons together. Ralph was an entomologist who worked in Nicaragua. SuZan and her children were present when Mr. Swain was murdered by bandits on the Pan American Highway in Mexico in 1953. Subsequently, Su Zan supported herself by writing and illustrating books on the natural world, illustrating more that twenty and designing charts and models for classrooms. She married William K. Firmage in 1968, and joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in 1974. Su Zan died in 2010 in Hillsborough, Florida.