Carl Walter Salser, Jr. was born on 16 August 1921 in Emporia, Kansas. He grew up in Corvallis, Oregon after his father left Kansas State Teacher's College (now Emporia State University) to become Dean of Education at Oregon State College (now Oregon State University Oregon State University (http://www.oregonstate.edu)). He graduated from Corvallis High School and enrolled at Oregon State College.

With the outbreak of World War II he served as a Navy Corpsman, stationed at the Naval Hospital in Corona, California before being ordered to the Pacific for the assault on Okinawa. Following the war he joined the Naval Reserve from which he retired as a Lieutenant Commander.

Also following the War he graduated from Oregon State where he also met his future wife, Barbara Anderson, of Lake Oswego, Oregon. They opened a men's clothing store and a restaurant which also served the training table for the college football team, before joining McGraw-Hill Publishing and moving to Portland. In the mid-1950s he became an editor for Allied Publishers, of Portland, and in 1960 took over a college of business (now known as Capstone English Mastery Center (http://www.capstone.org) before forming the 501(c)3 nonprofit Educational Research Associates (http://www.eralearning.org)

The author or editor of more than 100 instructional titles, Salser authored two books on education policy, A Tyrant in Cap and Gown, and Public Education from A to Z.

He was appointed by President Reagan to the National Council on Educational Research (NCER) on 28 May 1982. Confirmed by the U.S. Senate, he served two terms on the Council until its purpose was changed, its authority stripped, and it became merely the National Advisory Council on Educational Research and Improvement