Born in Boonville, Missouri, to a Dutch immigrant father and Anglo-American mother, van Ravenswaay attended Washington University in St. Louis, graduating with an AB in 1933 and an MA in liberal arts in 1934.

In addition to these degrees and honors, Ravenswaay served as president of the American Alliance of Museums from 1961 to 1962 and received the Conservation Service Award from the U.S. Department of the Interior in 1987.

In addition to his written and political career, Ravenswaay served in the United States Navy in the North Atlantic and South Pacific theaters during World War II from 1942 to 1946.

In one of his travels, he took the time of identified the flowers, garden crops, and grape varieties that have been brought over from Germany to the vicinity of Hermann, Missouri.

He even said that he believed it to be possible to develop historic gardens and grape arbors based on the plants that he identified in the early 1800s German community.