His two Wesleyan grandfathers, the Reverends Samuel Fowler Prior and Hugh Henwood Teague, were sent from England to South Australia as missionaries in 1875.

As the son of a doctor, Prior at first considered becoming a biologist, but ended up focusing on theology and philosophy, graduating from the University of Otago in 1935 with a B.A.

While studying for his B.A., Prior attended the seminary at Dunedin's Knox Theological Hall but decided against entering the Presbyterian ministry.

[7] In 1936, Prior married Clare Hunter, a freelance journalist, and they spent several years in Europe, during which they tried to earn a living as writers.

He served in the Royal New Zealand Air Force from 1943 to 1945 before embarking on an academic career at Canterbury University College in February 1946.

[11] He began teaching philosophy and logic at Canterbury University College in February 1946, filling the vacancy created by Karl Popper's resignation.

Smart feared that tense-logic would get Prior "involved in side issues, even straight philosophy, and not in the stuff that will do Oxford most good.

[14] During his time at Oxford, Prior met Peter Geach and William Kneale, influenced John Lemmon, and corresponded with the adolescent Saul Kripke.

"[15] Prior arranged Logical a Colloquium which brought together such Logicians as John Lemmon, Peter Geach, Czesław Lejewski and more.

[16] The colloquiums were a great success and, together with Prior's John Locke lecture and his visits around the country, he helped revitalize British logic.

[citation needed] Natural language, he remarked, can embody folly and confusion as well as the wisdom of our ancestors.