Born in Okemah, Oklahoma, DeLoss McGraw became an illustrator and art teacher. He studied at the Otis Art Institute of Los Angeles, the Art Institute of San Miguel Allende in Mexico, California State University in Long Beach, and Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan from where he earned an M.F.A.

From 1972 to 1975, he taught at Northern Kentucky University and from 1978 to 1983, he taught at the University of San Diego. He has also been an artist-in-residence in several institutions including Wichita State University, University of Delaware, and California State Universities in Turlock and Long Beach. Among his commissions are magazine covers for "Houston Home and Garden," Christmas 1986; cover for the Ten Year Anniversary of the Long Beach Opera; and "Poster Project Collaboration with Jime Dine, Richard Diebenkorn, DeLoss McGraw and Lucas Samaras" for the University Art Museum at California State University-Long Beach. Book illustrations include "Father Williams" and "The Mock Turtle's Song" by Lewis Carroll, "The Wounded Angel" by Robert Phillips, and numerous books by W.D. Snodgrass. From 1971, he has been in numerous group and solo exhibitions.

In addition to numerous museums, his work is in the Achenbach Foundation for the Graphic Arts in San Francisco; Amoco Productions in Denver, Colorado; Cincinnati Symphony Collection in Cincinnati, Ohio; Copley Library in La Jolla, California; Columbia University Special Collection Library in New York; East Central University in Oklahoma; Houghton Collection of Harvard University; Bodleian Collection of Oxford University in England; Riverside Savings and Loans in Illinois; Temple University in Philadelphia; and Swarthmore College Special Collection Library in Pennsylvania.