San Francisco native Frank R. Grannis (1924–) exemplifies the power of persistence and hard work. He grew up in the City and attended Lowell High School. In 1941, Grannis joined The Olympic Club as a junior swimmer when the Natatorium was still salt water.
He trained under OC Hall of Fame coach George Schroth (a teammate of fellow inductee George Mitchell). Grannis participated in the junior Spin & Swim contest, winning in 1941 and 1942. In 1942, he also won the 100-yard freestyle at the San Francisco City championships and set the Club record in the 100-yard free for Juniors at 58.5 seconds. The Olympian noted that, “in making this mark, Grannis stamps himself as a truly potential aquatic great.”
He attended the University of California, Berkeley, where he also swam, played water polo and had the joy of meeting Mary, his future wife. They married in 1947 and raised four children together. They were married for 76 years before she passed away in December 2023. He served in the Navy from 1942–1946 (he started in the Naval ROTC at Berkeley); he later became a lieutenant in the Navy Reserve.
He earned his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1949 and then worked at IBM for 38 years, 1949–1987. His last position with the company was as Head of Personnel in San Francisco. Though he left the Club in 1946, he rejoined in 1976 when he returned to the Bay Area and his potential as an “aquatic great” began to be unlocked. He joined the Masters swim program in 1983 and, since then, he has finished in the top 10 nationally 143 times as an individual and 37 as part of a relay. He has won medals in every stroke, showing remarkable skill and versatility.
In 1983, he won his first medal, a bronze, at a USMS Masters National Championship as part of the 55+ 200-yard medley relay with Ralph Perry, John Laird, and fellow OC Hall of Famer Ed Rudloff Sr. He finished in the top 10 nationally as an individual for the first time in 1985. He attended the FINA World Masters Swimming Championships in Tokyo in 1986, where he, Phil Gay, Laird, and Rudloff Sr., won the silver medal in the 200-meter medley relay, 240+. Over the years, he has traveled to at least seven countries to compete. He won his first individual medal at USMS Masters Championships in 1994 (silver in the 100-meter fly), participated in the Club’s first-ever combined men’s and women’s Masters swim team in 1995, and won his first national title in 2004 (gold in both the 100-meter and 200-meter fly). He attended the 2004 Masters World Championships in Italy, where he captured three gold (50-meter and 200-meter fly
and 200-meter free), one silver (100-meter fly) and a bronze (200-meter IM).
He currently holds the men’s 95–99 national record in the 50-yard fly, set in February 2020. At that same meet, he won four golds, in the 50-yard free, 50-yard back, 50-yard breast and 50-yard fly. He previously set national records in the 90+ 200 IM in 2014 (his time of 5 minutes, 8.02 seconds broke the previous age group record, set 10 years prior, by 4 seconds) and the 90+ 100 IM in 2015.
His resilience and fortitude are inspiring to all who know him, but he credits his success to his great Olympic Club coaches and friends throughout the years. He continued his record setting ways in the weeks leading up to the Hall of Fame celebration in 2024, becoming the first Olympian to set a Club record in the 100+ age bracket.
