Dan K. Utley was born in Lufkin, Texas. He received a Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of Texas at Austin in 1971 and a Master of Arts in History from Sam Houston University in 1985. In 1979, he became the Assistant Director of Research for the Texas Historical Commission (THC). From 1983 to 1985, he served as the Director of Research, a position which included oversight for the state historical marker program. He left the THC in 1985 to become a contract historian and cultural resource manager. While working as a contract historian, he conducted research and wrote both state and federal cultural resource management reports. Between 1991 to 1993, he served as Oral Historian and Lecturer for the Baylor University Institute for Oral History. In 1997, he returned to the THC as the Special Projects Coordinator. In 1999, he became administrator of the Texas Historic Courthouse Preservation Program. In 2001, he became the Assistant Director of the History Programs Division, where he coordinated the Official Texas Historical Marker Program and supervised programs related to cemetery preservation, a World War II initiative, the oral history program, and the military sites program. In 2004, he became the chief historian of the THC. He retired from the THC in 2007. In 2009, he became an adjunct professor and chief historian of the Center for Texas Public History at Texas State University at San Marcos. He retired from Texas State in 2019.