John C. Pryor (1883 -- 1979) was born in Abindon, Virginia. When he was five years old his family moved to Council Bluffs, Iowa. There he attended public schools and worked at a number of odd jobs as a teenager. Pryor graduated from Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa, in 1907, and the following year earned his law degree from the University of Chicago. Returning to Council Bluffs to begin his legal career, he remained there until 1922 when he relocated his law practice to Burlington, Iowa.

In 1916 Pryor was the Democratic candidate for Congress from Iowa's 9th District. From 1915 to 1921, he was a member of the Council Bluffs Board of Education and from 1926 to 1931 he was a member of the Board of Education in Burlington. In the 1930s, he was state administrator of the Iowa State Emergency Relief Administration, assistant general council of the Farm Credit Administration, president of the Iowa State Bar Association, a member of the Iowa Commission on Uniform State Laws, and the general council for the Federal Land Bank of Omaha. During World War II, Pryor was chief council of the Preclusive Operations Division, Office of Imports, Board of Economic Welfare, legal advisor to the Economic Welfare Division of the American Embassy in London, and president of the National Conference on Uniform Law.