John Grenier
Encyclopedia
John Edward Grenier was a Birmingham
attorney
and a pioneer in the development of the modern Republican Party
in the U.S. state
of Alabama
. Grenier was a former litigator for Lange Simpson Robinson & Somerville, one of the oldest and most distinguished law firms in Birmingham. He was Alabama state Republican party chairman from 1962-1965. He then launched an unsuccessful campaign in 1966 for the United States Senate
. He was thereafter active in 1986 in the election of Guy Hunt as the state's first Republican governor
of the 20th century.
and lettered in track
, football
and baseball
. In 1953, Grenier received his undergraduate and law
degrees, having completed a five-year program at Tulane University
. Then he served as a United States Marine Corps
pilot
in South Korea
after the Korean War
, having attained the rank of captain. He flew more than one hundred patrols with VMF-312, the "Checkerboard Squadron".
After Tulane, Grenier married the former Lynne Youmans (born 1932); they moved to Birmingham, the seat of Jefferson County
, Alabama's most populous county. They had one son, John Beaulieu "Beau" Grenier (born 1956), a Birmingham attorney married to Joy Grenier in 2007. John and Lynne were divorce
d in 1983, and in 1991, Grenier married the former Stella Kontos (born 1950). In addition to his wife and son, Grenier was survived by four grandchildren by his son Beau and former daughter in law, Celeste Crowe Grenier (born 1958 of Mobile, Alabama) a Birmingham divorce attorney: John Beaulieu Grenier, Jr. (1986), Dorothy Monnish Grenier (1989), Evans Barlow Grenier (1991) and Carolyn Youmans Grenier (1994) of Birmingham, Alabama and a sister, Rosemary Grenier Rivet of San Diego, California
.
After his military service, Grenier enrolled at New York University
in New York City
, where he received an LL.M. degree in taxation. He practiced law briefly on Wall Street
before he and Lynne relocated to Birmingham so that he could join the staff of the Southern Natural Gas Company
. He subsequently joined the law firm Bradley Arant Rose & White, where he became a partner and practiced corporate and tax law under the tutelage and mentorship of Lee C. Bradley, Jr. He then joined the firm formerly known as Lange, Simpson, Robinson & Somerville and was a partner there for some thirty-five years before his retirement in 2004.
Richard M. Nixon. In the general election
, however, Alabama split its electoral votes between Democratic
U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy
and an unpledged segregationist slate that supported Democratic U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd, Sr., of Virginia
. In 1961, Grenier was named chairman of the Young Republicans of Alabama and thereafter was promoted to state party chairman.
Employing the Southern Strategy
in 1964, Grenier worked to secure the presidential nomination for then Senator Barry M. Goldwater of Arizona
, who upset the party's "Eastern Establishment", which had dominated the selection process for decades. Grenier secured the support of 271 of the 279 southern delegates to support Goldwater at the national party conclave held in San Francisco
. One of the dissenters was Winthrop Rockefeller
, future governor of Arkansas
, who was committed to his brother, then Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller of New York
. Depicted as "bright, tough-minded, and a superb organizer", Grenier then became the executive director of the Republican National Committee
, second to then party chairman Dean Burch
, also of Arizona. That appointment ended in 1965, when incoming chairman Ray C. Bliss
of Ohio
assembled a new team at the RNC.
In Alabama, state chairman Grenier recruited a slate of candidates for the United States House of Representatives
to challenge Democrats who in the past had usually been unopposed in the general election
. Five of those candidates were elected. Two of the captured seats—in Mobile
and Montgomery
-- have remained in Republican hands since the 1964 election. A third district, based about Birmingham, was Republican held until 1983. Two other districts reverted to the Democrats in the 1966 mid-term elections.
of Gadsden
, who became the unopposed Republican Party
candidate. Grenier, meanwhile, challenged U.S. Senator John Sparkman
. He received 313,018 votes (39 percent) to Sparkman's 482,138 (60.1 percent). Another 7,444 votes (0.9 percent) went to Julian Elgin, an independent who had been Sparkman's Republican opponent in 1960. Sparkman was an entrenched incumbent
who had also been the running-mate of Adlai Stevenson of Illinois
in 1952. Grenier actually ran ahead of his ticket-mate Martin, who was crushed in the gubernatorial race by Lurleen Wallace
(1925–1968), wife of popular outgoing Democratic Governor George Wallace
Martin finished with 262,943 votes (31 percent) ; Mrs. Wallace's 537,505 (63.4 percent), and the remaining 47,655 (5.6 percent) went to independent Dr. Carl Ray Robinson (1925–2005), a Bessemer
physician
. Martin and Grenier each won only one of the state's sixty-seven counties -- Winston
in north Alabama, whose descendants were mostly non-slaveholders who had been Republican at the time of the American Civil War
. Grenier hence ran eight percentage points ahead of Martin because he received 50,075 more votes than Martin, and 45,503 fewer ballots were cast for senator than for governor. The sole voter group with whom Martin and Grenier prevailed was upper-income whites.
For a time during the first half of 1966, Senator Sparkman had seemed vulnerable. He won the Democratic nomination by an unimpressive margin over weak opponents. Some 224,000 voters who participated in the gubernatorial primary, handily won by Lurleen Wallace, skipped the Senate race. Grenier concluded that such apparent lukewarmedness toward Sparkman provided a base from which to mount a challenge. Yet Sparkman benefited from Lurleen Wallace's candidacy, for he could extol the popular portions of his record and still stress that he had opposed U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson
on nearly half of Senate roll call votes. Philosophical differences between the Wallaces and Sparkman were hence blurred in the interest of party harmony. Sparkman successfully emphasized the value to Alabamians of his constituent services, his chairmanship of the Senate Banking Committee and his key membership on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Grenier tried to tie Sparkman to President Johnson, having called his opponent "the ambassador to Alabama from the court of King Lyndon." He challenged the Democrats over the economy, constitutional interpretation, the Great Society, civil disobedience, and urban unrest. Grenier proposed military victory in the Vietnam War
, the restoration of voluntary school prayer
, and restrictions on foreign aid programs.
Bill Baxley
and the more conservative candidate, Attorney General
Charles Graddick
. Hunt defeated Baxley, just as Grenier had predicted that he would in what was seen outside Alabama as a stunning upset. Grenier then served in the Hunt administration as Chief of Staff
and managed Hunt's successful bid for reelection in 1990. Controversies plagued Hunt, however, and he was removed from the governorship in 1993 following his conviction on an ethics offense, before he could complete his second term.
player, snow skier, and fox hunter
. He was self-taught in French
, German
, Spanish
, and modern Greek
.
Grenier died after a brief illness of lung cancer
in The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center
in Houston
. Services were held on November 9, 2007, at St. Mary's On-the-Highlands Episcopal Church in Birmingham. Interment was in Elmwood Cemetery in Birmingham.
Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Birmingham had a population of 212,237. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, in estimate by the U.S...
attorney
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
and a pioneer in the development of the modern Republican Party
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
in the U.S. state
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
of Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
. Grenier was a former litigator for Lange Simpson Robinson & Somerville, one of the oldest and most distinguished law firms in Birmingham. He was Alabama state Republican party chairman from 1962-1965. He then launched an unsuccessful campaign in 1966 for the United States Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
. He was thereafter active in 1986 in the election of Guy Hunt as the state's first Republican governor
Governor
A governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...
of the 20th century.
Early years, education, military
Grenier was born in New Orleans, the youngest of three children of Charles Desire Grenier, Jr., a banker, and the former Beatrice Schaumburg (1893–1971). He graduated from Jesuit High SchoolHigh school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
and lettered in track
Track and field
Track and field is a sport comprising various competitive athletic contests based around the activities of running, jumping and throwing. The name of the sport derives from the venue for the competitions: a stadium which features an oval running track surrounding a grassy area...
, football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
and baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
. In 1953, Grenier received his undergraduate and law
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
degrees, having completed a five-year program at Tulane University
Tulane University
Tulane University is a private, nonsectarian research university located in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States...
. Then he served as a United States Marine Corps
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
pilot
Aviator
An aviator is a person who flies an aircraft. The first recorded use of the term was in 1887, as a variation of 'aviation', from the Latin avis , coined in 1863 by G. de la Landelle in Aviation Ou Navigation Aérienne...
in South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
after the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
, having attained the rank of captain. He flew more than one hundred patrols with VMF-312, the "Checkerboard Squadron".
After Tulane, Grenier married the former Lynne Youmans (born 1932); they moved to Birmingham, the seat of Jefferson County
Jefferson County, Alabama
Jefferson County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of Alabama, with its county seat being located in Birmingham.As of the 2010 U.S. Census, the population of Jefferson County was 658,466...
, Alabama's most populous county. They had one son, John Beaulieu "Beau" Grenier (born 1956), a Birmingham attorney married to Joy Grenier in 2007. John and Lynne were divorce
Divorce
Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...
d in 1983, and in 1991, Grenier married the former Stella Kontos (born 1950). In addition to his wife and son, Grenier was survived by four grandchildren by his son Beau and former daughter in law, Celeste Crowe Grenier (born 1958 of Mobile, Alabama) a Birmingham divorce attorney: John Beaulieu Grenier, Jr. (1986), Dorothy Monnish Grenier (1989), Evans Barlow Grenier (1991) and Carolyn Youmans Grenier (1994) of Birmingham, Alabama and a sister, Rosemary Grenier Rivet of San Diego, California
San Diego, California
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
.
After his military service, Grenier enrolled at New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, where he received an LL.M. degree in taxation. He practiced law briefly on Wall Street
Wall Street
Wall Street refers to the financial district of New York City, named after and centered on the eight-block-long street running from Broadway to South Street on the East River in Lower Manhattan. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, or...
before he and Lynne relocated to Birmingham so that he could join the staff of the Southern Natural Gas Company
Sonat
Sonat, Inc., headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, was a large Fortune 500 American energy holding company. The company was founded in 1928 and was listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "SNT". Sonat was primarily involved in transmission and marketing natural gas and oil and...
. He subsequently joined the law firm Bradley Arant Rose & White, where he became a partner and practiced corporate and tax law under the tutelage and mentorship of Lee C. Bradley, Jr. He then joined the firm formerly known as Lange, Simpson, Robinson & Somerville and was a partner there for some thirty-five years before his retirement in 2004.
Campaigning for Nixon and Goldwater
In 1960, Grenier arranged a successful rally in Birmingham on behalf of GOP presidential nominee, then Vice PresidentVice President of the United States
The Vice President of the United States is the holder of a public office created by the United States Constitution. The Vice President, together with the President of the United States, is indirectly elected by the people, through the Electoral College, to a four-year term...
Richard M. Nixon. In the general election
General election
In a parliamentary political system, a general election is an election in which all or most members of a given political body are chosen. The term is usually used to refer to elections held for a nation's primary legislative body, as distinguished from by-elections and local elections.The term...
, however, Alabama split its electoral votes between Democratic
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
and an unpledged segregationist slate that supported Democratic U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd, Sr., of Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
. In 1961, Grenier was named chairman of the Young Republicans of Alabama and thereafter was promoted to state party chairman.
Employing the Southern Strategy
Southern strategy
In American politics, the Southern strategy refers to the Republican Party strategy of winning elections in Southern states by exploiting anti-African American racism and fears of lawlessness among Southern white voters and appealing to fears of growing federal power in social and economic matters...
in 1964, Grenier worked to secure the presidential nomination for then Senator Barry M. Goldwater of Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
, who upset the party's "Eastern Establishment", which had dominated the selection process for decades. Grenier secured the support of 271 of the 279 southern delegates to support Goldwater at the national party conclave held in San Francisco
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
. One of the dissenters was Winthrop Rockefeller
Winthrop Rockefeller
Winthrop Rockefeller was a politician and philanthropist who served as the first Republican Governor of Arkansas since Reconstruction. He was a third-generation member of the Rockefeller family.-Early life:...
, future governor of Arkansas
Arkansas
Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...
, who was committed to his brother, then Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller of New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. Depicted as "bright, tough-minded, and a superb organizer", Grenier then became the executive director of the Republican National Committee
Republican National Committee
The Republican National Committee is an American political committee that provides national leadership for the Republican Party of the United States. It is responsible for developing and promoting the Republican political platform, as well as coordinating fundraising and election strategy. It is...
, second to then party chairman Dean Burch
Dean Burch
Dean Burch served as Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission from October 31, 1969 to March 8, 1974, and as chairman of the Republican National Convention....
, also of Arizona. That appointment ended in 1965, when incoming chairman Ray C. Bliss
Ray C. Bliss
Ray Charles Bliss was one of the important national U.S. Republican Party leaders of the 1960s and served as Chairman of the Republican National Committee from 1965 to 1969. He helped to pull the Republican party back together after Barry Goldwater's defeat in 1964 and his work culminated in the...
of Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
assembled a new team at the RNC.
In Alabama, state chairman Grenier recruited a slate of candidates for the United States House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
to challenge Democrats who in the past had usually been unopposed in the general election
General election
In a parliamentary political system, a general election is an election in which all or most members of a given political body are chosen. The term is usually used to refer to elections held for a nation's primary legislative body, as distinguished from by-elections and local elections.The term...
. Five of those candidates were elected. Two of the captured seats—in Mobile
Mobile, Alabama
Mobile is the third most populous city in the Southern US state of Alabama and is the county seat of Mobile County. It is located on the Mobile River and the central Gulf Coast of the United States. The population within the city limits was 195,111 during the 2010 census. It is the largest...
and Montgomery
Montgomery, Alabama
Montgomery is the capital of the U.S. state of Alabama, and is the county seat of Montgomery County. It is located on the Alabama River southeast of the center of the state, in the Gulf Coastal Plain. As of the 2010 census, Montgomery had a population of 205,764 making it the second-largest city...
-- have remained in Republican hands since the 1964 election. A third district, based about Birmingham, was Republican held until 1983. Two other districts reverted to the Democrats in the 1966 mid-term elections.
The 1966 campaign
Grenier himself planned to run for governor in 1966, but he instead deferred to U.S. Representative James D. MartinJames D. Martin
James Douglas Martin is a retired Republican politician from the US state of Alabama. His 1962 campaign for the United States Senate was the first serious showing by a member of his party since Reconstruction....
of Gadsden
Gadsden, Alabama
The city of Gadsden is the county seat of Etowah County in the U.S. state of Alabama, and it is located about 65 miles northeast of Birmingham, Alabama. It is the primary city of the Gadsden Metropolitan Statistical Area, which has a population of 103,459. Gadsden is closely associated with the...
, who became the unopposed Republican Party
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
candidate. Grenier, meanwhile, challenged U.S. Senator John Sparkman
John Sparkman
John Jackson Sparkman was an American politician from the state of Alabama. A conservative Southern Democrat, Sparkman served in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate from 1937 until 1979. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for Vice President as Adlai Stevenson's running mate in...
. He received 313,018 votes (39 percent) to Sparkman's 482,138 (60.1 percent). Another 7,444 votes (0.9 percent) went to Julian Elgin, an independent who had been Sparkman's Republican opponent in 1960. Sparkman was an entrenched incumbent
Incumbent
The incumbent, in politics, is the existing holder of a political office. This term is usually used in reference to elections, in which races can often be defined as being between an incumbent and non-incumbent. For example, in the 2004 United States presidential election, George W...
who had also been the running-mate of Adlai Stevenson of Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
in 1952. Grenier actually ran ahead of his ticket-mate Martin, who was crushed in the gubernatorial race by Lurleen Wallace
Lurleen Wallace
Lurleen Brigham Wallace , born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, was the 46th Governor of Alabama from 1967 until her death in 1968. She was the first wife of Alabama Governor George Wallace, whom she succeeded as governor. She succeeded her husband as he was forbidden by Alabama law to succeed himself. She...
(1925–1968), wife of popular outgoing Democratic Governor George Wallace
George Wallace
George Corley Wallace, Jr. was the 45th Governor of Alabama, serving four terms: 1963–1967, 1971–1979 and 1983–1987. "The most influential loser" in 20th-century U.S. politics, according to biographers Dan T. Carter and Stephan Lesher, he ran for U.S...
Martin finished with 262,943 votes (31 percent) ; Mrs. Wallace's 537,505 (63.4 percent), and the remaining 47,655 (5.6 percent) went to independent Dr. Carl Ray Robinson (1925–2005), a Bessemer
Bessemer, Alabama
Bessemer is a city outside of Birmingham in Jefferson County, Alabama, United States eight miles west of Hoover. The population was 29,672 at the 2000 Census, but by the 2009 U.S...
physician
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
. Martin and Grenier each won only one of the state's sixty-seven counties -- Winston
Winston County, Alabama
Winston County is a county of the U.S. state of Alabama, formerly known as Hancock County before 1858.Its name is in honor of John A. Winston, the 15th Governor of Alabama. As of 2010, the population was 24,484. Its county seat is Double Springs....
in north Alabama, whose descendants were mostly non-slaveholders who had been Republican at the time of the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. Grenier hence ran eight percentage points ahead of Martin because he received 50,075 more votes than Martin, and 45,503 fewer ballots were cast for senator than for governor. The sole voter group with whom Martin and Grenier prevailed was upper-income whites.
For a time during the first half of 1966, Senator Sparkman had seemed vulnerable. He won the Democratic nomination by an unimpressive margin over weak opponents. Some 224,000 voters who participated in the gubernatorial primary, handily won by Lurleen Wallace, skipped the Senate race. Grenier concluded that such apparent lukewarmedness toward Sparkman provided a base from which to mount a challenge. Yet Sparkman benefited from Lurleen Wallace's candidacy, for he could extol the popular portions of his record and still stress that he had opposed U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...
on nearly half of Senate roll call votes. Philosophical differences between the Wallaces and Sparkman were hence blurred in the interest of party harmony. Sparkman successfully emphasized the value to Alabamians of his constituent services, his chairmanship of the Senate Banking Committee and his key membership on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Grenier tried to tie Sparkman to President Johnson, having called his opponent "the ambassador to Alabama from the court of King Lyndon." He challenged the Democrats over the economy, constitutional interpretation, the Great Society, civil disobedience, and urban unrest. Grenier proposed military victory in the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, the restoration of voluntary school prayer
School prayer
School prayer in its common usage refers to state-approved prayer by students in state schools. Depending on the country and the type of school, organized prayer may be required, permitted, or prohibited...
, and restrictions on foreign aid programs.
Working for Governor Hunt
It was a full twenty years after the 1966 elections before Alabama Republicans won their state's governorship. In 1986, Grenier served as campaign manager for Guy Hunt in Hunt's successful bid for governor. Hunt benefited from a serious split within the Democratic Party that year between Lieutenant GovernorLieutenant governor
A lieutenant governor or lieutenant-governor is a high officer of state, whose precise role and rank vary by jurisdiction, but is often the deputy or lieutenant to or ranking under a governor — a "second-in-command"...
Bill Baxley
Bill Baxley
William Joseph Baxley II is an American Democratic politician and attorney.He was born in Dothan, Alabama and attended law school at the University of Alabama, graduating in 1964. He served two terms as Attorney General of Alabama, from 1971–1979; at the age of 27, he was the youngest to hold that...
and the more conservative candidate, Attorney General
Attorney General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general, or attorney-general, is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions he or she may also have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions.The term is used to refer to any person...
Charles Graddick
Charles Graddick
Charles Allen Graddick is Circuit Judge of the 13th Judicial Circuit of Alabama, United States.Graddick attended the all-male University Military School, the forerunner of UMS-Wright Preparatory School, graduating in 1963...
. Hunt defeated Baxley, just as Grenier had predicted that he would in what was seen outside Alabama as a stunning upset. Grenier then served in the Hunt administration as Chief of Staff
Chief of Staff
The title, chief of staff, identifies the leader of a complex organization, institution, or body of persons and it also may identify a Principal Staff Officer , who is the coordinator of the supporting staff or a primary aide to an important individual, such as a president.In general, a chief of...
and managed Hunt's successful bid for reelection in 1990. Controversies plagued Hunt, however, and he was removed from the governorship in 1993 following his conviction on an ethics offense, before he could complete his second term.
Death and legacy
Grenier's son Beau states that his father was said to have had a zest for living: avid tennisTennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
player, snow skier, and fox hunter
Fox hunting
Fox hunting is an activity involving the tracking, chase, and sometimes killing of a fox, traditionally a red fox, by trained foxhounds or other scent hounds, and a group of followers led by a master of foxhounds, who follow the hounds on foot or on horseback.Fox hunting originated in its current...
. He was self-taught in French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, and modern Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
.
Grenier died after a brief illness of lung cancer
Lung cancer
Lung cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in a process called metastasis into nearby tissue and, eventually, into other parts of the body. Most cancers that start in lung, known as primary...
in The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center
The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center is one of the nation's original three comprehensive cancer centers established by the National Cancer Act of 1971. It is both a degree-granting academic institution and a cancer treatment and research center located at the Texas Medical Center in...
in Houston
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
. Services were held on November 9, 2007, at St. Mary's On-the-Highlands Episcopal Church in Birmingham. Interment was in Elmwood Cemetery in Birmingham.