Tom Craven was born in Portland, Oregon and lived there until he finished college. He did his graduate work at Cornell University in snowy Ithaca, NY, and then moved to Hawai‘i where he has lived most of his life, teaching at the University of Hawai‘i Mathematics Department.

His research has been in esoteric areas of math, mostly algebra and complex analysis. He has also been involved in math education for his entire career.

His wife is a retired high school math and computer science teacher. He has two sons, both with math degrees, though one works with computers and the other is now a musician. He has been involved with Hawai‘i Council of Teachers of Mathematics in various capacities for as long as he has been in Hawai‘i.

His first experience with PREL was with Project DELTA in 1999.