Tracy R. Gran Sr. was born and raised in Duluth, Minnesota. He holds degrees from the University of Minnesota Duluth, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and the State University of New York at Buffalo. He taught for thirty-three years within the University of Maine system and spent the last eight years as the dean of the campus at University College in Bangor. He lives in Winterport, Maine, with his wife of fifty-five years. They have two grown children.