Grace Mead Andrus, as she was born, was of Connecticut ancestry, her father Wallace R. Andrus, having served in the 17th Connecticut Volunteers in the Civil War. He was later a land agent for the Northern Pacific Railway. Her mother was Annis Mead.
She attended the Sage School of Philosophy at Cornell University, where she received her Doctor of Philosophy and met Theodore de Laguna, an instructor there, whom she married.
She was raised in the Oregon Territory. Grace and Theodore both taught philosophy for many years at Bryn Mawr, starting in 1907. She became chair of philosophy at Bryn Mawr after Theodore"s death in 1930.
