Russell Richard Biddick was born in Livingston, Wisconsin. His father, Ernest, was a high school physics teacher who raised Angus cattle. Rusty came to California in 1933 and entered Davis High School, graduating in 1937. In 1941, he graduated from UC Davis with a Bachelor of Science degree in Animal Husbandry. During his college career, Rusty was a member of the Philo Delphos Fraternity, played football, and was active in student affairs, participating as baseball manager, as a member of the Circle CA Society, on the staff of the California Aggie, and on the Vigilance Committee.

Rusty's interest in livestock was not only fostered by his early home life, but also by his uncle, Professor Elmer Hughes, in whose home he lived during his high school and college years in Davis.

In early 1942, he enlisted in the Air Corps and served with distinction in World War II as a bombadier with the Eighth Air Force, flying seventy bombing missions. He was decorated with the Distinguished Flying Cross, a unit citation, the European-African-Middle Eastern Theater Medal with three orange stars, and the Air Medal with twelve oak leaf clusters.

Following his release from military service in 1945, Rusty became a lamb buyer for Swift and Company for several years. He married Audrey Schreiner in 1949. At the time of his death in 1955, Rusty was successfully pursuing a sheep brokerage business in Dixon.

Rusty Biddick was a loyal Cal Aggie and an active supporter of the Davis campus of the University of California.