Daniel F. Merriam married Annie Laura Young on Feb. 12, 1946 in Philadelphia, PA. He was a Navy veteran of WWII.

Merriam was a Senior Scientist with the Kansas Geological Survey at the University of Kansas. He was educated in the U.S. at the University of Kansas (BS, MS, PhD) with a minor in archaeology and in Europe at the University of Leicester (England) (MSc and DSc). In addition to his research at the KGS, he had worked for Union Oil Company and been a distinguished professor and head of the Department of Geology at Syracuse University and Wichita State University; he was also an Adjunct Professor at Emporia State University (Kansas).

Merriam was also a visiting scientist at Stanford University, Leicester University, Dartmouth College, University of Sydney (Australia), Ecole des Mines (France), and GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam (Germany). He was an Honorary Member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Society of Sedimentary Geology, International Association for Mathematical Geology, Kansas Geological Society, and Sigma Gamma Epsilon; a Senior Fellow of the Geological Society of America and a Fellow of the Geological Society of London. He received a gold medal from Hornicka´ P ibram (Czechoslovakia) (1970), was appointed to the U.S. National Commission for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization by the Secretary of State (1979), awarded the Krumbein Medal from the IAMG (1981), William Smith Medal from the Geological Society of London (1992), and Haworth Distinguished Alumni Honors in Geology from KU (1995), in addition to presidential citations and certificates of recognition, appreciation, or merit from several professional organizations.

Merriam published more than 300 books, scientific articles, and notes, mostly on the geology of the U.S. Midcontinent, and Kansas in particular. Most recently he was Historian for the Department of Geology at KU and the Kansas Geological Survey as well as the Historian and Archivist for the IAMG.