Born in 1872 in Haiti where his father was serving as U.S. Minister Resident, Ulysses Simpson Grant Bassett was the son of Ebenezer Don Carlos Bassett, believed to have attended Yale in the 1850s, and Eliza Park Bassett, whose father Robert M. Park was a longtime Yale employee and community leader in New Haven. A brother, Ebenezer Don Carlos Bassett, Jr., attended Yale College from 1881 to 1882.
Before entering Yale, Ulysses S. G. Bassett attended the Hopkins School in New Haven. After earning his Yale degree, he taught in Philadelphia and New York, but he spent most of his career teaching in Washington, DC, where other family members lived. Bassett died in 1942 and is buried in the family plot in Grove Street Cemetery.
Image citation: Yale College Class of 1895 class book, Yale University Library