When you live 26 years beyond retirement it would not be unusual for a new generation to forget your contribution during the 88 years you lived among us. J. Marse Grant, who died at home Oct. 17 following several years of physical incapacity, contributed too much to North Carolina life, Baptist and otherwise, to say goodbye without remembering.

Best known as editor of the Biblical Recorder for 23 years, the longest tenure of any editor in the Recorder's 175-year history, Grant was of strong opinion, committed and certain. He did not project the offputting tartness common to many who carry the chip of certitude, but instead simply explained the way things ought to be and stuck by it.

He edited the Biblical Recorder during the peak of its circulation and through tumultuous years, including the death of a Baptist State Convention executive, the conservative shift in Southern Baptist life, civil rights and his opposition to the move of Baptist State Convention offices from downtown Raleigh to a suddenly awakening bedroom community of Cary.

Grant, second son of Leonidas L. and Elsie Blankenship Grant, was born Sept. 13, 1920 in High Point. When he was baptized 16 years later at Hilliard Memorial Baptist Church in High Point he had already been in newspapers for five years. He delivered 125 papers each morning, without benefit of a bicycle.

He worked Saturday nights writing local sports for the High Point Enterprise and in 1937 began working evening shift at a local mill so he could attend classes during the day at High Point College. He wrote sports for the student publication and declined the editorship because he was hired as the college's publicity director.

In 1942 he was diagnosed with love. He married Marian Gibbs of Greensboro and together they worked out a treatment regiman. That teamwork became important in another lifelong effort because in 1943 Grant was diagnosed with Type One diabetes. Medicine and diet controlled the disease until his final years.

He had his first stroke in 1993  in Copenhagen while Marian and he were leading another of their many travel groups. Recurring strokes left him physically incapacitated at last. As recently as 2005 I pulled random photos from a box in his house and he would name the persons pictured in the photo, the date it was taken and the circumstances around it.

Grant edited the Lincoln County News and the Morganton News Herald until in 1949 he landed the first stop in his real professional goal, Christian journalism. He became editor of Charity & Children, the Baptist Children's Homes publication and treated it like a real newspaper, not just a promotional piece for BCH. He competed with the Biblical Recorder and even covered the Baptist World Alliance meeting in London. In 1960 he became editor of the Biblical Recorder and wasn't too keen on continued competition from Charity & Children.

His successor there, John Roberts, later became editor of South Carolina Baptist Courier. I also edited Charity & Children for 12 years beginning in 1987. From 1977 I was feature editor of Baptist Press, providing national and international news out of Nashville for Baptist state newspapers. I was practically a rookie and Grant was an icon in the field, but he never treated me with anything less than professional respect and Christian regard.

Grant believed in being active in the marketplace of ideas and during his tenure he served in various volunteer capacities under five governors. He was a charter member on the Good Neighbor Council in 1963, now the N.C. Human Relations Council, which deals with integration. He was appointed by Gov. Terry Sanford and re-appointed by Govs. Dan Moore and Robert Scott. He was appointed by Gov. James Holshouser to the Comprehensive Health Planning Board and by Gov. Jim Hunt to his Goals and Policies Board.

Grant served on the Governor's Task Force on Drunken Drivers which developed the 1983 Safe Roads Act. He also served on the State Task Force on Domestic Violence and the NC Commission of the Holocaust. 

In 1971-72 Grant was appointed by President Richard Nixon as a member of the N.C. Advisory Committee on Education, a bi-racial group.

His book Whiskey at the Wheel: The Scandal of Driving and Drinking went through four printings. 

Grant and Marian left a church they enjoyed to help start a new church in Raleigh, at the urging of the local association. They later found their way to the church where my wife and I worship, where a memorial service is to be held Oct. 20. It will be the final ceremony for a man who did not stand on ceremony, a fitting tribute to one who poured his heart and life into North Carolina Baptists.