[2][3] He was educated at Fremont Seminary in Norristown, Pennsylvania, West Chester Normal School (in 1874, as part of the first graduating class)[4] and Ivy Institute.
[5] For several years, Groff was the author of the majority of the health journals issued by the State of Pennsylvania.
In August 1898, he began a two-year stint as commissioner of the National Relief Commission in Puerto Rico.
[2] He had fallen ill the previous day while teaching a class, and had suffered from bouts of influenza in the past.
[4] He was interred in Rosedale Friends Cemetery in West Goshen Township, Pennsylvania, in a family plot owned by his father-in-law William P.