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By Len Bose
February 20, 2015 | 5:34 p.m.
Between 1983 and 1985, I was at the Orange Coast College sailing center almost every day as a member of the OCC sailing team and then one year as coach. During this time, I met people like Jim Jorgensen, Brad Avery and Dave Grant.
At that time, Grant was the dean of students and the head rowing coach at OCC. It did not take much in the way of observation skills to quickly notice that Grant was the big man on campus. One thing I recall about Grant is that he was always a busy guy, and each day, you were greeted by him with a heartfelt hello and a laugh.
Jump forward some 30 years, and Grant has since retired from OCC. But I still get a very warm welcome and a laugh every time I run into him around the harbor.
Grant was born in Los Angeles, and his parents lived in Alhambra. In 1947, after the war, when his father got out of the Navy, the family moved to Costa Mesa.
"Dad did not want to live in the city, so he purchased 5 acres of land in Costa Mesa so that my sister could have horses and I could have dogs," he said.
Grant explained how he enjoyed exploring the bay, duck-shooting and water skiing.
"Kids used to sail their sabots around the bay and explore Shark Island, now called Linda Isle," he said. "We would fish for crawdads. It was pretty wild, and we thought that it would go on forever."
About that time, his father purchased a 24-foot sailboat with an outboard on the back, and the family would sail around the harbor and up and down the coast.
"Going out to the bell buoy was the most exciting thing in the world, and we would look down into the deep blue water and wonder how deep it was there," he explained.
Grant then went on to Newport Harbor High School, OCC and UCLA. At this time in his life, he had rowed a little at OCC and some at UCLA when one day the phone rang and Basil Peterson, then president of OCC, was on the line. He asked Grant if he would be interested in a one-year assignment teaching American history and invited him to his office to discuss the assignment.
During the interview, Peterson hardly looked up from his desk as he explained the one-year assignment. "One more thing — the crew is a mess. Go straighten it out," Peterson said as Grant was leaving the office.
Grant explained that he knew very little about crew, and, without even looking up from his desk, Peterson said, "I am sure you will figure it out."
Later, while Grant was thinking of his new assignment, he happened to see a copy of Sports Illustrated with Harry Parker, the new head coach of the Harvard varsity rowing team, on the cover. Grant picked up pen and paper and wrote to Parker, asking him for his help.
Parker accepted — and invited Grant to spend a week with him.
"I really learned rowing from the best coach in the world," Grant said. "He was fabulous, and he was my mentor through it all." This turned out to be a long-lasting friendship, and OCC extended Grant's assignment.
I asked Grant about some of his favorite moments as the OCC crew coach. He reflected back to 1968, beating Washington State University in the state of Washington. "Back then, that was like beating the UCLA basketball team at home," he said.
I could almost see the smile on his face over the phone while he described to me the team's trip to China in 1968 to compete in a rowing regatta. Grant was also invited back to China the following years as a coach. Grant noted that the team had been invited 10 times to the Henley Royal Regatta in England.
I asked him about the hard part of being the crew coach. ""Every year we would have great kids, fantastic kids that were under 6 feet tall try out for the team," he responded. "The odds of these kids making a boat was very remote, and telling them this was one of my hardest things I had to do as a coach."
I knew Grant has a great passion for the sea and plenty of sea stories. Here is one he told me: In 1972, during a six-month sabbatical, Grant and three of his closest friends purchased a Cal 28 by the name of Passages and sailed to Hawaii, Samoa, Fiji and New Caledonia, retracing some of the routes of Capt. James Cook.
"Well, I never told the crew how often I dropped the sextant, which always made for excitement during our expected landfalls," he said.
Another time he and the OCC sailing director, Avery, were making plans for the college's 65-foot sloop Alaska Eagle to sail in the Sydney-Hobart Yacht Race.
"The fire was blazing with my dog at our feet," he said. "It was warm in my living room and very comfortable. Then fast forward into the race, and everyone on the boat was seasick except Avery and I while we smashed into these huge seas with water going over our heads constantly. Avery and I had three-hour watches on the wheel, and while Avery was coming onto watch, he looked through the boat's port light and asked me to tell the story again about the fire and what a great idea this race was."
Grant was inducted into the Intercollegiate Sailing Hall of Fame in Annapolis, Maryland, in 1975, becoming only the sixth West Coast mariner to be given that prestigious honor. He even found time in 1989 to climb the 19,240-summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa.
I wanted a list of Dave Grant maxims.
He laughed and answered: "Regarding what to do when you lose, you can be disappointed but not discouraged, and as a coach, I would say, 'I never give up until you give up.' To a sailor, I would say, 'A ship in a harbor is safe, but that's not what ships are built for.' This would always remind me to go to sea. There has been many times when I have used the quote from Cecil Rhodes, 'So little time, so much to do.' We have a lifetime to do these things, and we are crazy not to do them."
We then talked about some of the changes he experienced in the harbor. He mentioned "the loss of the big sailing vessels in front of the Stuft Shirt, which is now called A'marree's. It was always a sight to see the Goodwill, a 161-foot schooner, sail in front of the sea base. I also have a concern that the harbor is so built up now that kids have lost the chance for adventure around the harbor."
When I asked him if he had any concerns around the harbor, Grant explained, "The harbor distinguishes us from most other cities. We have a harbor and we don't take very good care of it. Why don't we put huge amounts of money into cleaning things, making sure the catch basin running through the Back Bay is maintained and improved? We have a fabulous resort, and we don't take very good care of it. If the city would put some money into it, it would be money very well spent."
At the end of my interview, Grant pretty much summed it up in one short comment: "We are very lucky to be here."
I have much more biographical information and notes regarding Grant on my blog site at lenboseyachts.blogspot.com. I have to tell ya, I learned a lot on this one.
Sea ya.
LEN BOSE is an experienced boater, yacht broker and boating columnist
Notes:
BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
DAVID A. GRANT, PRESIDENT EMERITUS,
ORANGE COAST COLLEGE
David A. Grant: Administrator at Orange Coast College for 34 years. He was named the College’s president in August 1989. He served in that position until 1997.
Dave was born in Southern California and grew up in the Harbor area. He graduated from Newport Harbor High School and Orange Coast College. He received his BA in political science at UCLA and his MA in American history from Cal State University, Long Beach. He also did post-graduate work at Stanford, University of Stockholm and University of Oslo.
In 1963 Dave was selected to be an OCC history instructor and head rowing coach. He served as Assistant Dean of Students from 64-1974 and as the Dean of Students from 1975-1986. He then served as Director of Marine Programs, Facilities and Services for OCC for three years prior to being named as OCC’s College President.
As College President, Dave was intensely involved in all its operations, raising substantial amounts of money from the outside for College needs: The remodel of the Robert B. Moore Theatre, the Student Center and the new Harry and Grace Steele Children’s Center. He championed the new Technology Center and set up the College’s first High Technology Group to keep the campus up to speed in technology. He encouraged a now flourishing international students program, inaugurated an Honors Program for those students who wanted a particularly rigorous challenge, established a Transfer Opportunity Center and a Puente Program aimed at assisting Hispanic students as well as a Re-Entry Center, geared to help women returning to higher education. He put the College first in the state with a Skills Guarantee Program, which guarantees the quality of OCC graduates to employers.
Dave selected more than 80 full-time new faculty members, revitalizing many academic divisions.During his tenure as President of the College, he also taught a class five days a week from 6 am to 8 am each morning.
For all those reasons, he was honored by the Governor of California and the California State Legislature.
The OCC President was inducted into the Intercollegiate Sailing Hall of Fame in Annapolis, Maryland in 1975 becoming only the sixth West Coast mariner to be given that prestigious honor.
During a 1972 sabbatical leave, Dave sailed a 28-sloop to Hawaii, Samoa, Fiji and New Caledonia, retracing some of the routes of Capt. James Cook. He has sailed extensively in New Zealand and Australia, having competed in the Sydney-Hobart yacht race several times, circumnavigated NZ’s South Island aboard the College’s sloop Alaska Eagle as well as sailing with that vessel in the Society Islands and through much of Northern Europe. He has also sailed amongst the Galapagos Islands and competed in several TransPacific and Mexican yacht races. He has sailed through the Straits of Magellan and was a member of an expedition to South Georgia Island, east of Cape Horn.
In 1989, he climbed with a team to the 19,240 ft. summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa.
Dave has been coaching rowing at Orange Coast for most of his adult life, fitting in those early morning hours 6am to 8am before his “real job” on campus. During his tenure, the Pirates have become a formidable rowing power in the US. His crews have won numerous championships and have competed many times at the Henley Royal Regatta in England. OCC was the first American college crew to be invited to race in the People’s Republic of China which they did in 1985. He also coached rowing for elite Chinese oarsmen for a summer in Shanghai. He served as Assistant Rowing Coach for the United States for the 1984 Olympic Games. Twice he has been featured in the nation’s premier sports magazine, Sports Illustrated.
He has been a significant fundraiser for the College, having just chaired the committee that raised $substantial funds for the addition to the College’s School of Sailing and Seamanship.
He was a leader in establishing the Newport Aquatic Center and served on its Board of Directors for 10 years, and as its president for four years. He has been a member of the Orange Coast College Foundation Board since 1989 and was a key member of the team that successfully passed a major bond issue for the Coast Community College Dist. The OCC Collegiate Rowing Center is named for Dave.
He served on the Board of Trustees of the Newport Harbor Nautical Museum including a two year term as the President of the Board. At the Nautical Museum he has been a frequent lecturer on historical maritime adventures.
He is a member of Newport Harbor Yacht Club, the Cruising Club of America and the Leander Club at Henley on-Thames, England. He was recently the Chairman of the Orange Coast College Foundation Board of Directors as well as President of the Friends of the OCC Library. He was also elected to the public office of Trustee of the Coast Community College District for a second four year term.
OCC'S DAVE GRANT IS INDUCTED INTO PRESTIGIOUS LEANDER ROWING CLUB
Thursday, July 11, 2002
Retired Orange Coast College president David A. Grant, who recently completed his 38th and final season as the college's head crew coach, has been inducted into the prestigious Leander Club, located in Henley-on-Thames, England.
Grant returned this week (July 9) from England where his OCC crew reached the second round of the Henley Royal Regatta competition. After beating the University of Bristol, England by four lengths in the opening round, the Pirates lost to Queen's University of Belfast by two lengths in the second race.
The Pirates competed in Henley's Temple Challenge Cup division.
Grant, 63, has taken his OCC crews to the Henley Royal Regatta on 10 occasions in 38 years. He joined Orange Coast College's faculty in 1963, and served as OCC president from 1989-95. He took three years off as crew coach while serving as president.
Though he retired from the college in 1995, Grant continued to coach OCC's crew.
Founded in 1818, the Leander Club is the world's oldest and most renowned rowing club. It is headquartered in a building located next to the Henley Bridge, situated at the finish line of Henley's famous rowing course.
Leander's membership, which stands at 3,000, comprises distinguished past and present British and overseas oarsmen and oarswomen, together with those who've given special service to the sport of rowing.
Earlier this spring, OCC's beautiful boathouse on North Lido Channel in Newport Beach was named in Grant's honor. The boathouse is now called the David A. Grant Collegiate Rowing Center.
Grant served as OCC's assistant dean of students from 1964 through 1974, and was dean of students from 1976 through 1986. He was director of marine programs, facilities and services from 1986 through 1989. He became OCC's sixth president in '89.
Grant was inducted into the National Sailing Hall of Fame in 1975. He was only the sixth West Coast mariner to be given that prestigious honor. He was an assistant U.S. Olympic crew coach for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games.
Grant was inducted into the National Sailing Hall of Fame in 1975. He was only the sixth West Coast mariner to be given that prestigious honor. He was an assistant U.S. Olympic crew coach for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games.
During his 38 seasons as OCC's head crew coach, Grant's Pirates became one of the most formidable collegiate rowing powers in the nation. They won more than 80 percent of their races -- against the likes of such collegiate heavyweights as UC Berkeley, Stanford, UCLA, Washington, Harvard and Pennsylvania.
Grant's OCC crews have competed in international regattas in England, Ireland and Canada. In 1984, his Orange Coast squad became the first Western crew ever to row in the People's Republic of China.
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