Jim McGregorwas mile champion of the 1940 city meet, won three northwest cross country meets, and earned three basketball letters. He also excelled in swimming and was the winner of the Lake Oswego Three Mile, the Columbia River Five Mile, and the Astoria Regatta meets. After graduation from Grant, he was a University of Southern California miler, a Marine during WWII, and built the Whitworth College basketball team into a powerhouse. He was named to the Grant Athletic Hall of Fame in 2011, and died in July, 2013.
Jim garnered worldwide recognition as an international basketball coach for twenty years. His teams competed in the Olympics and Pan American games in Italy, Greece, Austria, Sweden, Turkey and Morocco. He coached women’s teams to three world championships: two for Peru and one for Columbia. He also authored "Called for Traveling," a title alluding to a basketball infraction.
Robert Jones, Class of 1945
Another Grantonian whose great athletic achievements have been overshadowed by life accomplishments is Robert E. Jones. Jones is a current U.S.District Court Judge, former professor of law, president of Oregon Trial Lawyers Assn. and still a motivational speaker at Grant athletic events. A four-year varsity letterman, he played on three PIL golf championship teams and in the same year won the individual state championship. After graduation, Jones served in the US Navy during WWII, graduated from the University of Hawaii and went on to Northwestern School of Law at Lewis & Clark College. He served in the Oregon House of Representatives and was on the Oregon Supreme Court. In a landmark case he upheld the Oregon Assisted Suicide Law against a federal challenge. He lives in Portland.
Nancy is a member and past chair of the Conference Board Global Council on Business Conduct. She has been a member of the Ethics and Compliance Officer Association board of directors and is a corporate fellow of the Ethics Resource Center Fellows Program and serves on its advisory board.
Nancy’s mother was Connie Averill McCready ’39, a Portland commissioner and Mayor of Portland. Her father was Al McCready ’35, editor of The Oregonian.
Dan Weiden, Class of 1963
Robina Suwol was a very active General serving on the executive council as a class officer and a girl’s league officer, as well as competing in speech contests and acting in school plays.
Her interest in acting continued after GHS when she was living in California. While acting and raising her two boys, she had a life changing experience when her younger son was not able to blow his usual kiss to her one morning because the air was so unpleasant. A school gardener was beside him spraying the hedge at the same time. Robina checked with the school to learn they were spraying with Princep, the toxic herbicide simazine. It triggered a serious asthma attack in her son and began her mission to protect him and all the children.
In 1998 California Safe Schools (CSS) was founded by Robina and she remains the executive director. CSS is a nationally recognized children’s environmental health nonprofit coalition of over fifty organizations located in Southern California, committed to the health and safety of children and community members who reside near schools. CSS spearheaded the toughest pesticide policy in the nation at Los Angeles Unified School District. This policy called Integrated Pest Management Policy uses low risk methods to eliminate pest and weeds. In 2005, Governor Schwarzenegger signed into law a bill that closes a loophole protecting many millions of public school students as well as all school employees from exposure to pesticides whose health effects are unknown. CSS was the sponsor of that bill.
Robina is recognized as an environmental and children’s health activist nationally and has been given many awards for her leadership and outstanding work.