Melva Lind was born on March 16, 1903 and died April 18, 1997.  In 1923, she graduated from the University of Minnesota with a Bachelor of Arts degree and got her Master of Arts degree in 1943.  In 1926, she received the French equivalent to a Master of Arts degree from Université de Lyon in Lyon, France.  She earned her doctorate from L'Université de Paris en Sorbonne in Paris in 1929. Upon returning to the United States, she attended the MacPhail School of Music located in Minneapolis and earned a Master of Music in 1937.  She also held two diplomas from Université de Clermont-Ferrand in France in 1923 and 1924 as well as a scholarship from the Conservatoire de Musique in Lyon, France in 1925.

Lind began her teaching career at Smith College in Massachusetts from 1929-1936 as an assistant professor.  Her next teaching job was at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts where she was an assistant professor in French from 1936-1948.  She was also the resident director of the French Language house from 1943 to 1948. From 1948 to 1950, she served as the Associate in Higher Education at the American Association of University Women in Washington, D.C. She returned to teaching in 1950 at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio where she was a French Professor and the Dean of Students until she left in 1953.  At that point, she came to Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota.  At Gustavus, she served as a Frech Professor from 1953 to 1973, the Dean of Students from 1953 to 1965, and the Director of International Education from 1973 to 1979.  She was nominated as a candidate for Gustavus President and was a member on the Board of Trustees from 1975-1981.