When Gilbert Earl Cronin was born on 12 January 1919, in Spalding, Greeley, Nebraska, United States, his father, Timothy Earl Cronin, was 30 and his mother, Emma Bertina McKnight, was 20. He married Edle S. Jonnesen Nilsson Cronin on 27 August 1972, in Carson City, Nevada, United States. He lived in California, United States in 1972. He died on 14 August 1998, in Sacramento, Sacramento, California, United States, at the age of 79, and was buried in East, Nova Scotia, Canada.