Grace Melvina Louise Augustine was an academic and instructor born in Racine, Wisconsin on September 12, 1895 to Albert Benjamin Augustine and Caroline Margaret Barbara Augustine (nee Breithaupt) and raised alongside her siblings Albert William Augustine and Laurine Catherine Augustine. After the death of Albert Benjamin in 1909, the family moved to Berlin (later Kitchener) Ontario, their mother's birthplace. Grace returned to the United States to pursue graduate studies at Columbia University, obtaining an B.S., M.A. and, in [1935], a PhD in Household Arts. The same year Some aspects of management of college residence halls for women, which she co-authored with Mary De Garmo Bryan was published.

Following the completion of her PhD, Grace worked for a time at Columbia as an associate in Household Arts, Teacher College before being appointed to Texas State College for Women in Denton, Texas. She taught as an associate professor from 1938 until 1944, serving as head of the institution of management division and house director of residence halls. She went on to joint the Iowa State College as head of the Department of Institutional Management (later the Department of Hotel, Restaurant, and Institution Management) from the time of her appointment in 1944 until 1961. At some point after retiring, Grace returned to Kitchener where she lived in the family home on Margaret Avenue and served for a time a a member of the Parkwood Manor auxiliary executive. She died on April 8, 1981 and was buried in Mount Hope Cemetery, Kitchener.