In business, Heber J. Grant helped develop the Avenues neighborhood of Salt Lake City. In 1884 he served a term as a representative to the Utah Territorial Legislature.

Grant was born in Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, the son of Rachel Ridgeway (née Ivins) and Jedediah Morgan Grant. Jedediah was a counselor in the first presidency to Brigham Young. Rachel was a native of New Jersey where she had converted to The Church of Jesus Christ at about age 20. Her cousin and later brother-in-law (he married her older sister Anna) Israel Ivins was the first person baptized a Latter-day Saint in New Jersey.

Jedediah Grant died when Heber was nine days old. After Jedediah's death, Rachael married Jedediah's brother George Grant, but he fell into alcoholism so she divorced him. Rachel became the dominant influence in Heber's life. Rachel served for many years as president of the 13th Ward Relief Society in downtown Salt Lake City.

Heber J. Grant was known for his determination in achieving goals seemingly beyond his reach. As a child, he wished to join the baseball team that would win the Utah Territorial championship, although others believed him to be too physically awkward to be a successful baseball player. In response, he purchased a baseball and practiced throwing the ball against his barn until he developed his skill sufficiently to join the baseball team that would win the Utah Territorial championship.

In similar fashion, he expressed a desire to be a successful bookkeeper, although many of his associates criticized his penmanship. He likewise practiced his penmanship until such a point where he was invited to teach penmanship at one of the local academies.

In 1901, Grant was sent to Japan to open the Japanese Mission of the LDS Church, and he served as its president until 1903 when he returned home but was almost immediately sent to preside over the British and European Missions of the church.

Grant succeeded Joseph F. Smith as president of the LDS Church in November 1918. However, he was not sustained in the position by the general church membership until June 1919, as the influenza pandemic of 1918 forced a delay of the church's traditional springtime general conference.

During his tenure as president, Grant enforced the 1890 Manifesto outlawing plural marriage and gave guidance as the church's social structure evolved away from its early days of plural marriage-based families. In 1927, he authorized the implementation of the church's "Good Neighbor" policy, which was intended to reduce antagonism between Latter-day Saints and the United States government. In 1935, Grant excommunicated members of the church in Short Creek, Arizona that refused to sign the loyalty pledge to the church that included a renunciation of plural marriage. Although he recognized the 1886 Revelation by John Taylor to be in his own handwriting, he denounced it due to the fact that it was not in the archives of the church at the time of his official acknowledgment. The renunciation action signaled the formal beginning of the Mormon fundamentalist movement, and some of the excommunicated members went on to found the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

One of Grant's greatest legacies as president is the welfare program of the LDS Church, which he instituted in 1936. He said, "our primary purpose was to set up, insofar as it might be possible, a system under which the curse of idleness would be done away with, the evils of a dole abolished, and independence, industry, thrift and self-respect be once more established amongst our people. The aim of the Church is to help the people help themselves." His administration also emphasized the practice of the LDS health code known as the Word of Wisdom. Until Grant's administration, adherence to the health code was not compulsory for advancement in the priesthood or for entrance to LDS temples. (Allen and Leonard, p. 524)

Grant died in Salt Lake City, Utah from cardiac failure as a result of arteriosclerosis. As the final surviving member of the church's Council of Fifty, his death marked the end of the organization.