Ross Gordon Graves was born 18 August 1933 in West Gore, Nova Scotia. He attended Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (honours) in 1955 and a Bachelor of Education in 1956. Ross taught school in Nova Scotia from 1956-1958 before spending a year teaching in northern Scotland. Ross returned to Nova Scotia around 1960 and continued his teaching career.

Ross married Elizabeth Ann Schurman of Springhill, Nova Scotia. The couple had three children (Eloise Ina, Matthew Harmen, and Jonathan “Nathan” Allen). Ross had an interest in genealogy and was commissioned by H. B. Schurman of Prince Edward Island to research and write a history of the William Schurman family. The two-volume book, William Schurman, Loyalist, of Bedeque, Prince Edward Island, and his Descendants, was published by H. B. Schurman in 1973.

In 2013 Ross was retired and living in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.