Donald Ernest Mansell was born of missionary parents in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where he spent the first seven years of his life. His growing up years from 1930 to 1940 were spent in the Madeira and Azores islands.

In 1941 his parents were appointed missionaries to Mozambique in East Africa. While on the way, via the Philippines, Pearl Harbor was bombed, and three weeks later on December 28, 1941, Don, his parents, and brother Charles were captured by the Japanese in Baguio, Northern Luzon. The family spent the next three years in internment. They were liberated by American forces on February 4, 1945.

Upon his return to the United States, Don enrolled at Pacific Union College in Angwin, California, and graduated in 1949 with a BA in Theology. From 1949 to 1953 he served as a minister in the Northern California Conference. In 1952 he married Vesta West of Placerville, California.

Don has served his Lord and his church in numerous capacities: As missionaries in the Amazon region of Brazil (1953-1958); as pastor of the New Bedford, Portuguese SDA church; as academy bible teacher (Lynwood Academy); as an editor of the SDA Encyclopedia and later as an associate book editor at the Review and Herald Publishing Association; as an assistant secretary of the Ellen G. White Estate; and finally as an associate book editor at Pacific Press Publishing Association--a post he held until retiring in 1988.

Don has written numerous articles over the years, four books, and been the co-compiler or compiler of five others, including his current Shape of the Coming Crisis.

Vesta West Mansell was born in Daily City, California and grew up in Placerville. She graduated from Lodi Academy and went on to attend La Sierra College. She took a year of Business and Secretarial sciences, and later attended East L.A. College.

Vesta and Don were married November 9, 1952. She and Don have four children and seven grandchildren. Vesta has served the church as a pastor’s wife, and 18 years as an office secretary for Washington Adventist Hospital. She worked as a secretary at Pacific Press, where she retired in 1990.

Vesta has co-authored several books with her husband including Sure As the Dawn, and Angels and the Unseen Conflict. Don sings the praises of his wife saying that she is "an invaluable help" to him in checking his logic and providing resource material.