Grant Rodney Giske
Oct. 8, 1941 – Sept. 5, 2022
Grant Rodney Giske was born in Seattle to Anna and Ragnar Giske on October 8, 1941. He died September 5, 2022, following complications from a drug-resistant infection and kidney failure. He would have been 81 this month.
He spent his childhood between Seattle, Southern California, and Vashon Island, where he loved roaming the beach with the family collie Bonnie and experiencing a rural life. When Grant was 12, the family moved to the Ravenna district in Seattle where he attended Nathan Eckstein Junior High and then Roosevelt High School. He had a paper route, worked as a pin setter at the nearby bowling alley, and was active in DeMolay.
In 1958, a corporate move took the family to Menlo Park, California, where Grant attended Menlo Atherton High School for his senior year. He had a leadership role in DeMolay and coached swimming for Chuck Thompson Swim School. He attended Stanford University, earning a degree in mechanical engineering. While at Stanford he was a member of the water polo team, earned a spot as a lead lifeguard living in the Lake Lagunita lifeguard cabin next to the lake, and was a member of Phi Kappa Psi fraternity.
After college and a short stint working for IBM, Grant was drafted and served two years in the US Army, working as an engineer at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. He received a commendation from the military for his volunteer efforts establishing a competitive youth swim team and water polo teams in this community where few constructive activities were available for young people.
After meeting his military obligation, he returned to IBM, then asked to be considered for a position with IBM in South Vietnam at the height of the war, as he said, “to support the Vietnamese people.”
After his time with IBM, Grant returned to the Bay Area where he coached youth at Ladera Oaks Swim Club in Petola Valley, CA, got his pilot’s license to fly small planes, and established American Viking Enterprises, where he was successfully self-employed as a sought-after consultant to businesses using the Linux computer system. He also always had a project on the side like inventing his Pyromid barbecue or coming up with Pemmican jerky, a version of which is still available today.
In September of 1978 Grant married Tracy Little, whom he met while consulting with the company where she worked in the Bay Area. Their daughter Inga Marie was born in August of 1979 and they moved to Seattle the following year. Following a divorce, Inga later lived with Grant from mid-elementary school through high school. He took pride in her academic achievement, love of piano, and gutsiness as a young skater, skier, and skateboarder. He often expressed his pride in Inga becoming a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner and her recent work at St Vincent’s Hospital through Covid-19 while earning a doctorate in 2021, coauthoring a textbook, and parenting Asher, now 12, and Ella, 15.
After retiring from computer consulting at 60, he worked between Seattle and the Bay Area, establishing Wooska.com as an early online store selling a variety of goods with an international audience. When in Seattle he often stayed with nephew Erik and Erik’s son Ryan. Grant enjoyed the chance to cheer for Ryan at his cross-country and basketball events.
In addition to volunteering to work for conservative political candidates throughout his life, Grant also made a priority of giving hours to many non-profit organizations with different missions. From being a volunteer advisor in his twenties to Up With People to working as a coach for the Ladera Oaks Swim Team as a young man, and later in his sixties putting in hundreds of hours to raise funds for the Vista Center for the Blind in the Bay Area, he showed his concern for others. Recently, having a close friend experiencing Alzheimer’s, he learned everything he could about this disease and became involved as a volunteer with his local Alzheimer’s Association doing online presentations through the Cupertino library. He also enjoyed working as a host at Stanford University athletic events up until his kidney failure this summer.
Grant valued his friends and extended family of aunts, uncles, and cousins and never missed a family gathering. He is survived by his daughter Inga Giske, grandchildren Ella and Asher Ince, brother Tom Giske (Heidi Lee), sister Janet Giske Gillespie (Tim), nephews Erik Giske, Nathan Gillespie, and Josh Gillespie, and niece Anna Giske, their families and twenty-eight cousins. He was preceded in death by parents Ragnar and Anna Giske and sister-in-law, Florence DeTurk Giske.
Grant requested that there not be a funeral. If you wish to commemorate him, please consider a gift to The Peninsula Open Space Trust, The Alzheimer’s Association or ARC of King County WA, or a charity important to you and your family.
