Edward Lehman Ruhe was born in 1923 in Allentown, Pennsylvania, to Percy B. and Amy (Sieger) Ruhe. He attended the local high school from 1938 to 1941 before going onto Swathmore College in Swathmore, Pennsylvania from 1941 to 1943 and 1946 to 1948, receiving his bachelors degree in 1948. Between college stints, Ruhe served as dean and supervisor of the NATSPac academy of the Naval Air Transport service in Honolulu, Hawaii, from 1944-1945.

Ruhe attended Columbia University and received his Masters degree in 1951 and compleated his PhD in 1959 after lecturing at London University, 1951-1952, and teaching at various colleges and universities on the East coast.

In 1958, Ruhe was hired by the University of Kansas to teach 18th century English literature. During his time at KU he was also the principal investigator on the Edmund Curll Collection at the Spencer Library.

Ruhe was an avid collector of Aboriginal Australian art. He amassed the largest collection of eucalyptus bark paintings outside of Australia. This collection was collected in the 1965 school year while Ruhe was a Fulbright lecturer at the University of Adelaide in Australia.

Edward L. Ruhe died in 1989 in Lawrence, Kansas, at the age of 66.