When Darrel Jacob Zeller was born in May 1908, in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, Canada, his father, Otto Hartzler Zeller, was 25 and his mother, Edith May Sheridan, was 26. He married Viola Mildred Tarpenning on 19 March 1927, in Ashland, Saunders, Nebraska, United States. They were the parents of at least 1 son. He lived in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada in 1911 and Saskatchewan, Canada in 1916. He died on 15 July 1997, in Nebraska, United States, at the age of 89, and was buried in Pennant, Saskatchewan, Canada.