Melvin Thomas Steely was born on May 9, 1939, in Cedartown, Georgia, where he was raised. He first became interested in politics in 1946 when his father campaigned for Eugene Talmadge's gubernatorial run. Steely graduated from Carson-Newman College, and he earned his master’s degree and PhD in history at Vanderbilt University. He taught for one year at Lambuth College before coming to West Georgia College.

Steely taught history at the University of West Georgia from 1964 until his retirement in 2004. He served on the search committee which hired Newt Gingrich as a professor of history in 1970. The two men became friends.

Steely campaigned for Carl Sanders in 1970 for governor and he worked on the unsuccessful Gingrich congressional campaigns of 1974 and 1976. Gingrich won election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1978 and Steely worked as a congressional aide from 1978 to 1992. He served as the head of the advisory committee on matters of campaign and policy during the beginning of Gingrich’s congressional career. He also communicated the goals and ideas of Gingrich to the local Carrollton office. In 2000, he published a biography of Gingrich titled The Gentleman from Georgia.

Steely founded the Georgia’s Political Heritage Program (GPHP) in 1983 with the deposit of Newt Gingrich’s congressional papers and led the program for the next three decades. Oral history interviews, largely conducted by Steely, are the centerpiece of the GPHP. The oral histories began with a series of interviews with former Governor Herman Talmadge. Interviews focus on former politicians, including members of congress, governors and state legislators. The University of West Georgia Ingram Library’s Special Collections holds the Georgia’s Political Heritage Program records.

Mel Steely died on January 13, 2019, in Carrollton, Georgia.