George G. Groff was born on April 5, 1851, on a farm near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. He received his early education in the public schools and in academies at Phoenixville and Norristown, Pennsylvania. He was educated at West Chester State Normal School; Michigan University; and Long Island College Hospital, Brooklyn, New York. He taught in the public schools and at West Chester State Normal School before he was appointed as Professor of Organic Sciences in Bucknell University in 1879.

Dr. Groff, an outright proponent of co-education, advocated that women be admitted to the college and be allowed to receive degrees. In 1886, he studied in Germany, as did many nineteenth-century American academics. He served as acting president of Bucknell University for the 1888/1889 Academic Year. While serving in this capacity, Dr. Groff made provision for a course in the theory and practice of teaching to be taught in the Academy in the spring of 1889 by a visiting instructor.

Dr. Groff was a physician and a scientist who was active in public affairs as well as academic pursuits. In 1889, he was in charge of sanitation at Johnstown after the great flood. For a number of years, he lectured on health and scientific subjects at Teachers' and Farmers' Institutes. He was the author of a Series of School Physiologies; Farm and Village Hygiene; School Hygiene; Dairy Hygiene; and a textbook on mineralogy. In 1897, he was president of the State Board of Health and a member of the State Medical and Dental Councils. Dr. Groff was a member of the Baptist Church.