Born in Iowa, Strickler holds degrees from the University of Florida, Georgetown University and Florida State University. Prior to earning a library degree in 1988, Strickler was involved in linguistics, hotel management, entertainment coordination at Walt Disney World and professional gambling. Since 1988, he has been employed as a reference librarian at the University of Southern California, a library automation specialist in Provo, Utah and Emeryville, California, an abstracter/indexer of nursing journals, a motel owner/operator and, since retirement, an editor of financial documents and a lower brass musician.