George W. Grider

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George W. Grider
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Tennessee's 9th district
In office
January 3, 1965 – January 3, 1967
Preceded byClifford Davis
Succeeded byDan Kuykendall
Personal details
Born(1912-10-01)October 1, 1912
Democratic
Nickname"Gindy"
Military service
AllegianceUnited States
Branch/serviceUnited States Navy
Years of service1936-1947
Rank Captain
CommandsUSS Flasher (SS-249)
USS Cubera (SS-347)

George William Grider (October 1, 1912 – March 20, 1991) was a United States Navy Captain, an

attorney, and a Democratic U.S. Representative from Tennessee
from 1965 to 1967.

Early life

Grider was born in

public schools and received an appointment to the United States Naval Academy (USNA) in Annapolis, Maryland
, where he was graduated and received his naval commission in 1936. While at Annapolis, he married in secret in contravention to USNA regulations, and was officially married in 1938.

Naval career

Yearbook photo of Grider as a Midshipman First Class

After Grider's commission as an Ensign, he was assigned to the USS Mississippi (BB-41), as catapult officer, and subsequently to the USS Rathburne (DD-113).

After this service Grider was assigned to the Navy's Submarine Warfare School, and following his successful completion of its requirements was assigned to one of the World War II era's most accomplished submarines, the USS Skipjack (SS-184).

Grider was serving as an instructor at the Fleet Sonar School in

West Coast
.

Subsequently, Grider was assigned to the USS Wahoo (SS-238) as Engineering Officer, serving behind Dudley W. Morton and Richard O'Kane,[1] and then to two billets as executive officer, on the USS Pollack (SS-180), and the USS Hawkbill (SS-366). After this, he was given command of the USS Flasher (SS-249), and then USS Cubera (SS-347). For his service Grider was awarded the Navy Cross.[2] Grider told the story of his World War II experiences in the submarine service in the book War Fish which he wrote with Lydel Sims, published in 1958 by Little, Brown and Company.

Grider was forced to retire from active naval service at the rank of captain in 1947 after suffering a heart attack. He then enrolled in the law school of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia, where he was graduated with a law degree in 1950 and then, subsequent to his admission to the Tennessee bar, began the practice of law in Memphis.

World War II Summary

Summary of CDR George W. Grider's USS Flasher (SS-249) War Patrols
  Departing From Date Days Wartime Credit
Ships/Tonnage
JANAC[3]
Credit
Ships/Tonnage 		Patrol Area
Flasher-5 Freemantle, Australia November 1944 48 5 / 41,700[4] 6 / 42,868[5] South China Sea
Flasher-6 Freemantle, Australia January 1945 75 1 / 2,100[6] 1 / 850[5] South China Sea


 

CDR Grider's Ranking Compared with Other Top Skippers
Ranking Number of Patrols Ships/Tons
Credited 		Ships/Tons
JANAC
53 2 6 / 43,800[7] 7 / 43,718[5]


 

Public service and later life

In 1956 and 1957, Grider served on the Memphis Planning Commission, and from 1959 to 1964, the

Lyndon Johnson's gigantic landslide in that year's presidential election. He was one of two naval veterans elected to the House from western Tennessee in that election, the other being William Anderson. Grider voted in favor of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.[8]

However, Grider was to serve only one term in the House; in November 1966 he was defeated for reelection by

Albert Gore, Sr. two years earlier, and there was no Republican gubernatorial nominee in Tennessee that year. Kuykendall also took advantage of the large number of white Memphis-area Democrats switching to the Republicans. Ordinarily, the lack of a gubernatorial race would be considered a political disadvantage, but in fact it allowed Tennessee Republicans to concentrate their resources on winnable races, such as those faced by Kuykendall and Baker. Grider was the last white Democrat to represent a significant portion of Memphis until State Senator Steve Cohen
was elected to Congress from the Ninth District in 2006.

Following his defeat, Grider moved to Niagara Falls, New York, where he served for eight years as vice president and general counsel for the Carborundum Company, an abrasives manufacturer.

In 1975 Grider returned to Memphis and resumed the practice of law there, and was still living in the city of his birth at the time of his death in 1991. He was buried at the Memphis National Cemetery.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Grider (1958), p. 24, p. 69
  2. ^ a b "Bioguide Search".
  3. Joint Army-Navy Assessment Committee
    . Blair rounded entries in his tables (see Blair p. 900, bottom) while Roscoe's tables are an accurate transcription of the JANAC report.
  4. ^ Blair (1975) p. 966
  5. ^ a b c Roscoe (1949) p. 534
  6. ^ Blair (1975) p. 971
  7. ^ Blair (1975) pp. 984-987
  8. ^ "TO PASS H.R. 6400, THE 1965 VOTING RIGHTS ACT".

References

U.S. House of Representatives
Preceded by Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Tennessee's 9th congressional district
1965–1967 		Succeeded by
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