John McDougal Atherton was born in Larue County, Kentucky, on April 1, 1841. After attending school locally at Bardstown, he entered Georgetown College. He later attended the Louisville Law School. He moved to Louisville in 1873 where he resided until his death in 1932.

Mr. Atherton received many business honors. Among them he was president of the Lincoln Savings Bank and Trust Company; vice president and director of the National Bank of Kentucky; and director of the Louisville Realty Company, the Louisville Gas and Electric Company, and the Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company.

Civic honors also came his way. He was a member of the state legislature from 1870 to 1871. He was also chairman of the City Government Committee, which studied municipal reform. However, Mr. Atherton's chief civic interest was in the field of education. He became a member of the Louisville Board of Education in 1884. He worked successfully toward abolishment of the old school trustee law which resulted in the Louisville school system being put under the management of a Board of Education. He also, served as chairman of the Board of Trade's committee that selected candidates for the city's first non-partisan Board of Education in 1910.

On December 30, 1921, after suspending a rule forbidding the naming of a school after a living person, the Louisville Board of Education decided to name the proposed new girls' high school on Morton Avenue at Rubel for Mr. Atherton. The Board then sent the following message to him: "The Board of Education honored itself as well as you in naming the girls' high school about to be built 'Atherton High School for Girls.' In wishing you a happy New Year it desires to record itself appreciative of the years of hard and successful work which you have given to public school education in Louisville and the State of Kentucky."