The Ocean Institute’s Distinguished Speaker Series, presented by the Nicholas Endowment, brings interesting innovations, real-world research, exotic experiences, and delightful discoveries to the surface through powerful presentations from an ocean of experts. Speakers present on a variety of topics that align with our monthly themes.

Admission includes light snacks and refreshments. 

David A. Grant: Administrator at Orange Coast College for 34 years.  He was named the College’s president in August 1989. He served in that position until 1997.

Dave was born in Southern California and grew up in the Harbor area.  He graduated from Newport Harbor High School and Orange Coast College.  He received his BA in political science at UCLA and his MA in American history from Cal State University, Long Beach.  He also did post-graduate work at Stanford, University of Stockholm and University of Oslo.

In 1963 Dave was selected to be an OCC history instructor and head rowing coach.  He served as Assistant Dean of Students from 64-1974 and as the Dean of Students from 1975-1986.  He then served as Director of Marine Programs, Facilities and Services for OCC for three years prior to being named as OCC’s College President.

As College President, Dave was intensely involved in all its operations, raising substantial amounts of money from the outside for College needs: The remodel of the Robert B. Moore Theatre, the Student Center and the new Harry and Grace Steele Children’s Center.  He championed the new Technology Center and set up the College’s first High Technology Group to keep the campus up to speed in technology.    He encouraged a now flourishing international students program, inaugurated an Honors Program for those students who wanted a particularly rigorous challenge, established a Transfer Opportunity Center and a Puente Program aimed at assisting Hispanic students as well as a Re-Entry Center, geared to help women returning to higher education.  He put the College first in the state with a Skills Guarantee Program, which guarantees the quality of OCC graduates to employers.

Dave selected more than 80 full-time new faculty members, revitalizing many academic divisions. During his tenure as President of the College,  he also taught a class five days a week from 6 am to 8 am each morning. For all those reasons, he was honored by the Governor of California and the California State Legislature.

 The OCC President was inducted into the Intercollegiate Sailing Hall of Fame in Annapolis, Maryland in 1975 becoming only the sixth West Coast mariner to be given that prestigious honor.

During a 1972 sabbatical leave, Dave sailed a 28-sloop to Hawaii, Samoa, Fiji and New Caledonia, retracing some of the routes of Capt. James Cook.  He has sailed extensively in New Zealand and Australia, having competed in the Sydney-Hobart yacht race several times, circumnavigated NZ’s South Island aboard the College’s sloop Alaska Eagle as well as sailing with that vessel in the Society Islands and through much of Northern Europe.  He has also sailed amongst the Galapagos Islands and competed in several Trans Pacific  and Mexican yacht races.  He has sailed through the Straits of Magellan and was a member of an expedition to South Georgia Island, 1,500 miles east of Cape Horn.

 In 1989, he climbed with a team to the 19,240 ft. summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa.

Dave has been coaching rowing at Orange Coast for most of his adult life, fitting in those early morning hours 6am to 8am before his “real job” on campus.  During his tenure, the Pirates have become a formidable rowing power in the US.  His crews have won numerous championships and have competed many times at the Henley Royal Regatta in England.  OCC was the first American college crew to be invited to race in the People’s Republic of China which they did in 1985. He also coached rowing for elite Chinese oarsmen for a summer in Shanghai.   He served as Assistant Rowing Coach for the United States for the 1984 Olympic Games.  Twice he has been featured in the nation’s premier sports magazine, Sports Illustrated. The united States Rowing Association in 1918  in New York awarded David Grant its highest “Medal of honor”.

He has been a significant fundraiser for the College, having just chaired the committee that raised $substantial funds for the addition to the College’s School of Sailing and Seamanship.

He was a leader in establishing the Newport Aquatic Center and served on its Board of Directors for 10 years, and as its president for four years.  He has been a member of the Orange Coast College Foundation Board since 1989 and was a key member of the team that successfully passed two major bond issues for the Coast Community College Dist. The OCC Collegiate Rowing Center is named for Dave.

He served on the Board of Trustees of the Newport Harbor Nautical Museum including a two year term as the President of the Board. At the Nautical Museum he has been a frequent lecturer on historical maritime adventures.

He is a member of Newport Harbor Yacht Club, the Cruising Club of America and the Leander Club at Henley on-Thames, England.   He is a former Chairman of the OCC Foundation Board of Directors and just completed directing the OCC Planetarium building project.   He was also elected to the public office of Trustee of the Coast Colleges for a third  four year term, and recently serves as President of the Board of Trustees for the Coast Colleges.