He was a scholar of the works of H. G. Wells and Robert A. Heinlein and an occasional collaborator with Harry Harrison.
[1][2][3][4] Stover did his undergraduate studies at Western Maryland College, and received his M.A.
[1] His masters' thesis was The Chinese peasant family and communism; his dissertation, "Face" and verbal analogues of interaction in Chinese culture: a theory of formalized social behavior based upon participant-observation of an upper-class Chinese household, together with a biographical study of the primary informant.
He married Patricia Ruth McLaren, whom he met in drama class at Western Maryland College; they had one daughter, author Laren Stover.
His second wife was Takeko Kawai Stover whom he married shortly after completing his dissertation at Columbia University.