Louis Vaughan migrated from Barbados to the United States as a teenager and earned a Bachelor's Degree from Brooklyn College and a Master's Degree from Central Michigan University. He spent twenty-five years in the U.S. Air Force before retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1987 and has since worked as a counselor for the Commonwealth of Virginia and as the Director of Human Resources for the Virginia Commonwealth University. He lives with his wife, Linda, in Fredericksburg, Virginia and has two children and five grandchildren.