Grant was a curious boy, who loved to build and see how things were made.

But he also loved to see how things came apart.

"Wow"

In 1977, Grant and his mother saw the movie, "Star Wars." There was something about the droids, C-3PO and R2-D2 that inspired Grant to work with robots.

Grant attended college at the University of Southern California (USC) to study engineering and interned at the sound company THX,  at Skywalker Ranch.  Skywalker Ranch is George Lucas’, or the creator of Star Wars, production location! He graduated from USC with a degree in engineering and began working full time at THX.

He still loved the droids from his childhood and was one of the few people who worked with R2-D2 for commercials.  His work attracted the attention of Industrial Light & Magic’s Model Shop and he brought his talents there in 1996.

Some of his major works included Star Wars: Episodes I, II, and II, the Matrix sequels, and The Lost World: Jurassic Park. He even made changes to the Energizer Bunny for its advertisements. 

In his spare time, Grant designed and built a battle robot, Deadblow, to fight on the television show, Battlebots.  He and his robots were one of the show’s favorites.  

Grant with Deadblow (right) and winning on the show (top).

He wrote a book, Kickin’ Bot - An Illustrated Guide to Building Combat Robots, that helped readers learn how to become involved in the battle robot world.  

Grant also mentored the Richmond High robotics team and inspired students to become mentors themselves.  These robots didn’t fight, but were engineered to complete tasks on a map.  Grant is pictured with the team above.