John Watson Lungstrum attended Pembroke Country Day School in Kansas City, Missouri, where he won both National Merit and Yale National Scholarships. He graduated magna cum laude from Yale University and then earned his juris doctorate from the University of Kansas School of Law. While a student at KU, he served as editor-in-chief of the Law Review and earned membership in the academic honor society Order of the Coif.

Lungstrum participated in the ROTC while at KU, and directly after graduating he served in the U.S. Army for almost two years, including 13 months in Korea. He won an Army Commendation Medal for his service.

Thereafter Lungstrum entered private practice with Stevens, Brand, Lungstrum, Golden, and Winter in Lawrence, Douglas County, KS. In 1991 he was appointed to the federal bench. He served as the district's Chief Judge from 2001-2007 and served on several committees for the federal courts, including chairing the Committee on Court Administration and Case Management for the Judicial Conference of the United States, and chairing the Budget Committee in 2018.

In addition to his attorney and judicial work, Lungstrum has been a lecturer in contracts and evidence at KU's School of Law and has been a faculty member of the Kansas Bar Association College of Advocacy, Trial Tactics, and Techniques Institute. He is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation.

[Information retrieved from narrator biographical information form with collection materials.]