Donald Macer Erb was born June 22, 1937, in Billings, Montana, and was raised on a farm at Huntley, Montana. He attended grade school and graduated from Huntley Project High School at Worden, Montana, in 1955. He entered Montana State University in the fall of 1955, and received the degree of Bachelor of Science in Agriculture with a major in General Agriculture in 1960. He returned to Huntley where he resumed farming and also continued graduate studies in soil science, receiving an MA in Soil Science from MSU in 1967. During his time as an undergraduate, Erb enrolled in Merrill G. Burlingame's History 310 course and submitted as his class project an edited manuscript originally prepared by the Huntley High School class of 1942 regarding the history of the area. Burlingame kept the paper, and in 1969 donated it to Special Collections.
From the guide to the History of the Huntley Project, 1959, (Montana State University-Bozeman Library, Merrill G Burlingame Special Collections)
