Esther Elizabeth Twente was born in 1895 and grew up on a rural farm in Missouri. After graduating from the University of Missouri in 1918, she travelled to New York City, where her long career in social work truly began at the Brooklyn Bureau of Charities. After a year, Twente left New York and moved to St. Louis. Several years later her rural background pulled her to Arkansas City, Kansas, where she began an organization that combined social work and the Red Cross. Later she began a similar organization in Dodge City.

In 1929 Twente became the director of Family Service in Kansas City. As the Depression worsened, she was named the Assistant Superintendent of Relief for the Kansas Emergency Relief Committee. A little over a year later she was named the Superintendent. In 1937 Twente left the Kerc to join the faculty of the Department of Sociology at KU. As she taught, Twente also worked on her Master's from the University of Chicago, which she completed in 1945. At the same time, Twente also dedicated herself to the founding of the Department of Social Work, which saw fruition in 1946. The program (now the School of Social Welfare) began as a two-year graduate course, which Twente taught in and chaired for 11 years. Even as she taught and oversaw all program administration, Twente worked tirelessly towards program accreditation. Twente also earned a Fulbright Scholarship in 1956-1957, which she spent researching and lecturing in Australia.

After her retirement in 1966, Twente continued her social work and research. She was named to numerous committees and councils, continued to publish articles and a book, Never Too Old, and earned several distinctions, including her selection to the KU Women's Hall of Fame in 1970 and the Distinguished Senior Citizen of Kansas in 1971. Twente died December 18, 1971.