Jim McGregor, Class of 1940
Jim McGregor was 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.
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
Robert E. Jones is another Grantonian whose great athletic achievements have been overshadowed by life accomplishments. 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.
Dan Weiden, Class of 1963
Dan Wieden has been named as one of the 100 great advertising persons of the 20th century, one of America’s 25 most intriguing entrepreneurs as well as Oregon’s Professional of the Year, Entrepreneur of the Year, one of the world’s 50 CyberElite of Time magazine. He is the founder of Caldera a non-profit arts education organization and camp for at-risk youth in Sisters, OR. Wieden with David Kennedy formed a small ad agency in 1982 with one client and three employees, which grew into worldwide offices, and nearly 1000 employees. Dan is known for coining the Nike tagline “Just Do It.” While at Grant, he was on the swim team and went on to graduate from the journalism school at University of Oregon.
Opal Hamilton
Opal Hamilton was honored May 1970 at a Portland banquet for her 45 years of teaching, 42 of them at Grant. Senator Bob Packwood always credited her for her remarkable training of students who also include Portland Mayor Connie McCready and Commissioner Mildred Schwab, U.S. Interior Secretary Don Hodel as well as Judge Robert Jones, a fellow honoree this year. Three of her Grant speech teams won state championships and her students won national awards. In a 1981 Oregonian interview she said, “I just treated them like my own kids because I never had any.” A 1985 interview said, “Whatever the explanation...Yaw’s Drive-In was the place to be on Saturday night, Grant High School was an extraordinary incubator of talent” and Mrs. Hamilton was an integral part.
She was born in Kings Valley January 1905, taught in the valley and coast before moving to Portland for her 42 years at Grant. She retired in 1968 and died December 1992.
She was born in Kings Valley January 1905, taught in the valley and coast before moving to Portland for her 42 years at Grant. She retired in 1968 and died December 1992.