J. Birney Dibble was born in Madras, India to missionary parents in 1925 and lived there for four years before his family returned to the United States and settled around Aurora, Illinois. He attended Duke University under the Navy V-12 Program in 1943 and was training for the invasion of Japan when World War II ended. Dibble completed his medical training at the University of Illinois in 1949 and took an internship with Cook County Hospital.
Dibble was called back into active duty after completion of his internship and was sent to Korea in 1952. He served as a surgeon with Company E, 1st Medical Battalion of the 1st Marine Division and was eventually promoted to unit commander. During his service, Dibble saw action along the front line and spent time on a medical ship before returning to the United States in 1953.
After the war, Dibble worked as a surgeon at Cook County Hospital before relocating to Eau Claire, Wisconsin in 1957 to start a private practice. He also served as a surgeon in mission hospitals in Africa and also served as the chief of surgery in a local Eau Claire hospital. Dibble left his private practice in 1980 and served in multiple global mission hospitals until officially retiring in 2001.
Dibble married his first wife, Edna, soon after graduating from medical school. They were married for fifty-two years and had two children, Eric and Barbara, before Edna's death in 2001. Dibble married his second wife, Margaret, in 2003. Dibble is also the author of seven books, including a historical fiction about the Korean War entitled The Taking of Hill 1052.
