John W. Gregg majored in art and landscape architecture and received degrees from both the Massachusetts Agricultural College and Boston University in 1904. Early in his career, he worked in Missouri, Texas, Nebraska, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, and began working in California in 1913. In 1913 he established the Landscape Architecture program at the University of California, Berkeley serving as professor of landscape architecture from 1913-1947. Gregg consulted on the landscape development of the Berkeley campus and was actively involved with the Berkeley Park Commission as well as with other groups concerned with landscape development in California.