Art Schuller graduated from North Park University with a major in philosophy. While he intended to become a pastor, he decided instead to practice medicine. He received his MD degree from the University of Illinois, College of Medicine, and continued with specialty training in internal medicine and psychiatry. He taught at the University of Illinois, College of Medicine and the University of California, Davis, School of Medicine. For most of his practice he took care of patients with chronic pain.
When he retired he became a hospice volunteer, an advocate for affordable health care for low income and undocumented individuals and began to serve on community bioethics committees in the Monterey, California area.
Art and his wife, Sandy, and their daughter, Stephanie, live in Carmel Valley, California, where they sing in church and community choirs with great people, ride their Harley-Davidson, try to do good work, and where their dog, Snuffy, thus far has continued to allow them to do her bidding.