Lloyd William Taylor (1893-1948), noted physicist and his wife Esther Elenora Bliss (1890-1980), Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) leader, were married on December 11, 1917. They met at Grinnell College in Iowa. Lloyd William Taylor was born in Pittsfield, Maine on January 4, 1893. He graduated from Grinnell in 1914, and earned his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1922. Esther Bliss Taylor was born in Windom, Kansas on October 25, 1890, and graduated from Grinnell in 1915. Two children were born to the Taylors: Ruth Mildred (Mrs. Harold A. Deery) in 1923, and Edwin Floriman in 1931.

From 1917 to 1919 Lloyd W. Taylor served as a coastal artillery officer in the U.S. Army in Panama prior to studying and teaching at the University of Chicago. In 1924 the Taylor family came to Oberlin College following the appointment of Lloyd W. Taylor chairman of the department of physics. He was the author of several books including Physics: The Pioneer Science (1941); College Manual of Optics (1924); and co-author with Carl Ellis Howe of General Physics for the Laboratory (1926). Taylor was intensely interested in his students and kept in contact with many of his former students. His efforts helped make Oberlin College one of the premier undergraduate programs for physics students who went on to earn the Ph.D. degree.

Lloyd W. Taylor belonged to a variety of physics and professional organizations. He was president of the American Association of Physics Teachers, and a board member on the American Institute of Physics. Taylor was also a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Physical Society, the Ohio Academy of Science, the Optical Society of America, Gamma Alpha, Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi.

Both Lloyd William Taylor and his wife were active in community affairs. Esther Bliss Taylor was involved with the local WCTU chapter, and active in the effort to keep Oberlin free from the sale of alcoholic beverages. Her husband was a Republican precinct committeeman, and chairman of the Lorain County Republican Central Committee. Both were active members of the First Church in Oberlin.

In 1948, at the age of 56, Lloyd William Taylor died in a mountain climbing accident while vacationing. Esther Bliss Taylor remained active in the WCTU after her husband's death, organizing several local anti-alcohol campaigns. Mrs. Taylor was instrumental in the 1959 local option election in which sales of alcohol were banned in Oberlin by a 2-to-1 margin. She served as an officer in the Lorain County WCTU and was president of the Oberlin WCTU from 1946 to 1976. She remained a staunch supporter of temperance education until her death. Esther Bliss Taylor died on November 30, 1980.