It was a thankful day indeed for the parents of Richard “Dick” Holbrook Grant, who was born Nov. 24, 1927, in New Briton, Connecticut, two days before Thanksgiving,

His father was a teacher, and his mother stayed at home to care for Dick and siblings Robert, Leighton, and Madeline. The Grants moved more than 400 miles to Columbia Falls, Maine, when Dick was just six months old.