Honors: OCC to honor Grant legacy

NEWPORT BEACH - The Orange Coast College boathouse will be renamed

the David A. Grant Collegiate Rowing Center at a ceremony Sunday

following competition in the Newport Rowing Regatta on North Lido

Channel.

Grant, the retired OCC president, has announced this will be his final

year as coach of the college’s acclaimed rowing program. He has been at

the Pirate helm for 38 seasons. He took three years off from coaching

while serving as president.

“I think it’s about time,” Grant said. “I’ve absolutely loved every

minute serving as OCC’s crew coach and I have memories that will last a

lifetime. Hundreds and hundreds of former Orange Coast College oarsmen

are still my friends and we keep in touch.

Grant said the college rowing program hasn’t seen the last of him,

however.

“I’ll be happy to pitch in and help next year and the years after,” he

said. “Coaching rowing is an all-consuming occupation. Training and

season competition runs from August through May or June each year.

Coaches have absolutely no time to get away. I’ll be happy to fill in for

a day -- or a week -- in order to give OCC’s coaches some well-deserved

time off.”

Grant is thrilled about the facility carrying his name.

“This is a great honor and I’m extremely touched, but I must share it

with people like Bob Moore (OCC president from 1964-82) and Norm Watson

(former OCC sailing coach and president, as well as chancellor of the

Coast Community College District),” Grant said. “Without them, none of

this would have been possible. They made the center what it is today.”

Grant, 63, officially retired as OCC president in 1995 after having

served in that capacity for six years. He was an OCC faculty member for

33 years. He has continued to coach the rowing team -- a labor of love

for him -- since his retirement.

Raised in Newport Beach, Grant joined the OCC staff as a sailing coach

and assistant crew coach in 1962. He’d been involved in intercollegiate

sailing and rowing while an OCC student. He became a history instructor

and head crew coach in 1963.

He served as assistant dean of students from 1964-74 and was dean of

students from 1976-86. He was director of marine programs, facilities and

services from 1986-89. He became OCC’s fifth president in ’89.

Grant was inducted into the 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 Summer Games in Los

Angeles.

During a 1972 sabbatical leave, he sailed a 28-foot sloop to Hawaii,

Fiji, Samoa and Noumea, retracing the voyage of Captain James Cook, one

of his heroes.

During his 38 seasons as OCC crew coach, Grant’s Pirates became one of

the most formidable collegiate rowing powers in the nation. They’ve won

more than 80% of their races -- against the likes of such collegiate

heavyweights at 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 squad became the first Western crew ever

to row in the People’s Republic of China.

Grant played a major role in the establishment of OCC’s Sailing and

Rowing Center, located at 1801 West Pacific Coast Highway.

The college has maintained the waterfront facility since 1955, the

year before Grant graduated from Newport Harbor High and enrolled at

Orange Coast. The first structure on the property was a World War II

Quonset hut. The first dock was comprised of a dozen telephone poles

lashed together.

Grant played a pivotal role in seeing that a prefabricated steel

building replaced the hut in 1967. A bulkhead, docks and a single cement

block building were added to the property in 1970. The block building was

expanded in 1975. Classrooms and offices were added, above the existing

building, in 1988.

Two years ago, the facility saw the addition of a 3,277-square-foot

nautical library.

The regatta, which begins at 8 a.m., will include UC Irvine, UCLA,

Loyola Marymount, San Diego State, the University of San Diego and UC San

Diego.