Don L. Short was born June 22, 1903 in Le Mars, Iowa to Hugh Connoran and Anne Otely Corkery Short. Less than a year later the family moved to North Dakota and what would become the Short Ranch. The ranch is located in Billings County, North Dakota; near the town of Medora where Short attended public schools. He also attended the St. James School in Faribault, Minnesota, and an agricultural short course at Montana State University at Bozeman. Short graduated from Pillsbury Military Academy, Owatonna, Minnesota, in 1921; and was a student at the University of Minnesota 1922-1926, where he joined Phi Kappa Psi. After attending college he returned to the Short Ranch. In 1929 he married Edith Esther Whittemore, a Medora school teacher. He made his living as a cattle rancher and farmer.