Charles Miller Grant

At Longmont High School, Charles served as captain of the tennis team and president of the student body, evidence early on that one title rarely satisfied him. He carried that same drive to Yale, where he sang baritone with The Yale Spizzwinks, majored in political science, and graduated in 1962, then returned to Colorado, where in 1964 he married his high school sweetheart, Diane Row.

The family business was agriculture. Charles's heart was somewhere else entirely. He won a seat in the Colorado State House in 1968, and by 1970 he was running for Lieutenant Governor alongside gubernatorial candidate Mark Hogan. They lost narrowly to incumbent Governor John Love and his running mate, John Vanderhoof. Charles spent the years that followed in New York before returning home to Longmont in the 1990s.

What he kept, long after the campaign signs came down, was the gift for holding a room. His memory seemed to misplace nothing, and he used it the way a good storyteller does: pulling out exactly the tale the moment called for, usually one you hadn't heard before, even after knowing him for thirty years. His neighbors on Pratt Street got the daily version of that gift and were glad for it. So did his companion of twenty-five years, Buren Tsegrinld, who shared many trips with him and cared for him with real devotion as he grew older, and her son, DJ, who was part of that too.

Charles was preceded in death by his parents, Howard and Helen Grant, and his former wife, Diane. He is survived by his brothers, Wally and Doug, and sister-in-law, JoAnna Grant; nieces Justine Flynn (Chad), Annie Lund (Mike), Alexis Kochevar (Casey), and Anna Grant; nephews Cameron Grant (Erika), Aaron Grant (Angela), Andrew Grant, and Alex Grant, along with a number of their children; and extended family in Steamboat Springs, Craig, and Corte Madera.

Charles will be remembered for his tenacity, his determination to keep moving forward even in illness, and for the stories he leaves behind, the kind that stayed with you long after he'd finished telling them. He is deeply missed by his family, and especially by Buren Tsegrinld and her son, DJ Delger.