Dalton Ross McArthur was born March 1, 1951, to Ross J McArthur and Mae Dalton, in Salt Lake City, Utah. Ross was an educator and the family moved to various places in Utah, Colorado, and Missouri for Ross to pursue higher education and teach. The family settled in Orem when Ross was hired at Brigham Young University to develop the Department of Technology in 1956. Dalton and his older sister Mary grew up in Orem and attended Orem High School. After serving a two-year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Central States Mission, Dalton attended Brigham Young University, where he met Sandra Rae Feinauer. They were married December 22, 1973, in Idaho Falls, Idaho. They had eight children: four boys and four girls. Dalton followed in his father's line of work, pursuing a bachelor's degree in elementary education, followed by a master's degree in education administration, both from Brigham Young University. Dalton spent most of his career teaching 4th grade, first in Rigby, Idaho, where the family lived on a small farm. The McArthurs moved to Orem, Utah, in 1983, when Dalton began teaching 5th grade at Windsor Elementary. The school district transferred him to Grovecrest Elementary, in Pleasant Grove, Utah, where he taught 4th grade until his retirement from teaching in 2008. Dalton also ran a business called McArthur Enterprises, primarily for the landscaping and sprinkler installation work he did after school and during the summers, employing his children as workers. In 1977, Dalton began working on an idea to write a children's book to teach his students about the water cycle, and he solicited watercolor illustrations for the book from local artist Grant Levi Minson. He eventually self-published the book called "The First Snowflake" in 1989. Dalton and Sandra reside in Bluffdale, Utah, as of 2023.