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Huntington resident Robert T. Grant dead at 76

BY ANASTASIA ECONOMIDES | Newsday Staff Writer

11:09 PM EDT, March 16, 2008

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Robert T. Grant, a longtime Huntington resident who pursued both sports and religion with equal passion, died Thursday at home of complications of T-cell lymphoma. He was 76.

Grant's son, Michael S. Grant of Manhasset, said his father pursued a career in medical advertising, but his great loves were the church, basketball and golf.

At the Church of St. Patrick in Huntington, the 42-year Huntington resident was a eucharistic minister for 27 years and in 1994 he was made a Knight of the Holy Sepulchre by then-Cardinal John O'Connor, archbishop of New York. With his wife, Kathleen Grant, he traveled in pilgrimage to Rome and the Holy Land in 2000, his son said.

"His Easter came a week early," Monsignor John Bennett of St. Patrick said of Grant, who was also a Little League coach for the church team.

At his death, Grant and his wife were copresidents of the Friends of the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception in Huntington.

Grant played varsity baseball and ice hockey for Brooklyn Preparatory High Schooland was a basketball referee as a teen, his son said. As a member of the International Association Approved Basketball Officials, he officiated at high school level, in the Eastern College Athletic Conference, and at the U.S. Olympic trials in the 1970s.

Later he was president and treasurer of Board 127 of the international basketball association and was made a lifetime honorary member. His other son, Robert S. Grant of Lattingtown, said only about 10 other U.S. members served for 50 or more years.

He was also an avid golfer. "He had a great putter," said Robert S. Grant. As a 26-year member of the Huntington Country Club, he served on its board of governors for over 10 years, including a 1994-95 term as club president.

After graduating from St. Francis College, Robert T. Grant attended naval officers training, was commissioned an ensign in California and served on the aircraft carrier USS Bennington. In May 1954, he survived a shipboard explosion outside Quonset Point, R.I., that claimed more than 100 lives. He remained in the U.S. Naval Reserve for 22 years, retiring as lieutenant commander.

In addition to his wife of 52 years and his sons, Grant is survived by daughters Kathleen Murphy of Lattingtown and Meredith Reynolds of Huntington and three grandchildren.

A funeral Mass will be said at 9:45 a.m. today in the Church of St. Patrick, with burial in the church cemetery. Donations may be made to the American Diabetes Association, 333 Seventh Ave., 17th floor, New York, NY 10001; or to the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception, 440 West Neck Rd., Huntington, NY 11743.

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