Lloyd Ultan was born in the Bronx in 1938 and still resides there. He was educated in local schools, graduating from Hunter in the Bronx (now Lehman College) and from Columbia University. Since 1964 he has taught history at Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey, and since 2004 has also taught courses on Bronx history at Lehman College. . From 1971 to 1976 he served as President of the Bronx County Historical Society and still serves on its Board of Trustees. He has served since 1996 as Bronx Borough Historian.
Ultan has said that his greatest pleasure comes from the expressions of wonder and amazement on people’s faces when he tells them of some of the great things that happened in the Bronx. Lloyd Ultan does not use email, doesn’t own a cell phone, and doesn’t have a driver’s license. Rather than own a car he takes the bus or the train. Ultan has written or co-authored almost a dozen books, all but one about the Bronx. That one was about the presidents of the United States. His latest publication, from the Rutgers University Press in 2015, was co-authored with Shelly Olson. His love of the borough is evident in its title: The Bronx: The Ultimate Guide to New York City’s Beautiful Borough.