Marian Moffett earned a B.Arch. at North Carolina State University (1971) and the M.Arch. and PhD. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1973 and 1975, respectively). She taught architectural history at he University of Tennessee from 1975 until her death in 2004 where she collaborated with Lawrence Wodehouse in producing exhibitions and catalogs on the architecture of the Tennessee Valley Authority and cantilever barns, as well as co-authoring A History of Western Architecture and East Tennessee Cantilever Barns. Her research included work on wooden architecture in eastern Europe and town planning in Tennessee. She was active with the Southeast Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians and has served as President of the UT Faculty Senate and as an academic administrator in the Office of the Provost.