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- Year:
- 1963-2022
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- Sports Played:
- Coach & Administrator
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- Induction Year:
- 2016
Bio
David Grant has been a fixture of Orange Coast College crew and sailing for over five decades and his hard work and leadership transcends throughout the entire campus. Grant’s tenure on the water began in the fall of 1962 when he took over a struggling crew program as well as its sailing team. Despite a lack of early experience as a crew coach, Grant quickly helped turn OCC into a national rowing power, taking on some of the country’s top four-year programs. Year in and year out the Pirate rowing teams have travelled the country and even the world to compete against the best of the best. Coast crew has taken part in such prestigious regattas as the Dublin Regatta and the Henley Royal Regatta in Great Britain, the world’s premier rowing event. In 1985, the OCC crew became the first American crew to ever visit and compete in the People’s Republic of China. During Grant’s tenure, dozens of his former rowers have continued in the sport as head coaches at the four-year level, including greats like Wisconsin head coach and OCC Athletics hall of famer Chris Clark and Stanford’s Craig Amerkhanian. Racing against the top-level colleges and universities year in and year out, the Pirates won over 80 percent of the time during Grant’s coaching tenure. In 1984, Grant was a member of the coaching staff on the U.S. Olympic Rowing Team that competed in the Los Angeles Summer Olympics. In addition to his coaching success, Grant has been a successful professor, associate dean of students and dean of students for several years before becoming the college’s fifth president on July 1, 1990, a position he held until January of 1996. Grant has devoted his time and efforts throughout the local area, including being the president of the Newport Harbor Nautical Museum, the Newport Beach Aquatic Center and has been a president of the Friends of the OCC Library. The current president of the Coast Community College District Board of Trustees, Grant is a member of the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) Hall of Fame as well as the Newport Harbor High School Hall of Fame. In 2009, Orange Coast College renamed the boathouse and sailing center after Grant for his tireless work and dedication to the school and to the sport. Grant continued his support as a Coast Community College District Trustee until retiring from that position in 2022.
