Dale was born in Asheville and is a son of the late Mary D. and W.H. "Bill" Groce, Sr. He graduated from Lee H. Edwards High School, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the Dallas, Texas, Institute of Mortuary Science. He served four years overseas in the Air Force before returning to Asheville and joining Groce Funeral Home in 1974. He has served as District Director of the NC Funeral Directors Association and is former chairman of the First Citizens Bank Funeral Services Advisory Board and former treasurer of the West Asheville Business Association. He is married to Asheville native, Terrie Starnes, daughter of the late Glenn and Blanche Starnes, and they have one daughter, Kristina, a graduate of Furman University who received her MA in Psychology from Wake Forest University and her PhD in Psychology from NC State University. She is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Georgia Gwinnett College, Lawrenceville, GA and is the mother of a son, William Dale Brown.