Lafayette Ronald Hubbard (March 13, 1911 – January 24, 1986) was an American writer of science fiction, who also devised a self-help system called Dianetics, which was first published in 1950. Hubbard developed the system over the next three decades into a set of doctrines and rituals he called Scientology. Hubbard's writings became the guiding texts for the Church of Scientology and a number of affiliated organizations that address such diverse topics as business administration, literacy and drug rehabilitation.

Hubbard was a controversial public figure, and many details of his life are still disputed. Official Scientology biographies present him as a "larger than life" figure whose career is studded with admirable accomplishments in an astonishing array of fields. These accounts have been disputed by third-party researchers not connected with Scientology, who have often written sharply critical accounts of Hubbard's deeds.

L. Ron Hubbard was born in 1911 in Tilden, Nebraska to Ledora May Hubbard and Harry Ross Hubbard. Since Harry Hubbard was involved with the Navy, the family had to move as Harry was reassigned to new posts. While living on the Puget Sound in 1923, L. Ron Hubbard joined the Boy Scouts of America and became an Eagle Scout at age 13. In 1930, Hubbard was reported in the Washington Evening Star as having been the youngest Eagle Scout in the United States. According to the Boy Scouts of America, their documents at the time were only kept in alphabetical order with no reference to their ages and thus there was no way of telling who was the youngest.