He previously had served as editor of two secular North Carolina newspapers. After his retirement, he wrote columns for the Charlotte Observer and the High Point Enterprise.
Grant was profiled in The North Carolina Century: Tar Heels Who Made a Difference, 1900-2000. The article, by former Fayetteville Observer editor Charles Clay, details how Grant took an unpopular stand on race relations in just his second month at the Recorder.
“God loves all people,” Grant wrote. “To think that he prefers one over the other because of the color of skin is inconsistent with the teachings of the Bible.”
Grant warned about turmoil ahead following the Southern Baptist Convention’s conservative shift. In July 1982, he wrote an editorial saying political groups should not use the SBC.
“Marse was among the Baptist editors who had to try to make sense of the sea change in Baptist life that occurred near the end of his tenure,” noted current Recorder Editor Norman Jameson. “That he interpreted the changes through a lifetime lens of what he felt was being lost should be no surprise.”
Wilmer C. Fields, who was public relations director for the Southern Baptist Convention during much of Grant’s tenure, said Grant dedicated himself “24/7” for 33 years to journalism in the Baptist cause.
“His vocational commitment set high marks for his contemporaries and all who would follow,” Fields said. “Somewhere, somehow, there is newly written beside his name in the Lamb’s Book of Life, ‘Well Done!’”
When Grant announced his retirement in 1982, Tommy Payne, then chairman of the Recorder’s board of directors, wrote an editorial calling Grant a fighter.
“Agree with him or not, you have to admire the effort that he puts into issues he believes in,” Payne wrote.
Grant fought hard whenever he saw discrimination, Payne recalled.
“In the early 50s when it was costly to say segregation was wrong, Marse Grant did just that,” Payne said. “He was one of the few early voices in our state to speak strongly about the needs of our black citizens, and the need to change laws as well as attitudes.”
In an editorial announcing his retirement, Grant said many North Carolina Baptists had told him over the years that they did not always agree with him, but were glad the Recorder could express itself when differences came up in Baptist life.
“I like to hear that, and the Recorder will remain free,” he wrote. “North Carolina Baptists like it that way. They don’t want their state paper to become a house organ.”
In addition to Marian, his wife of 66 years, Grant is survived by three daughters, six grandchildren; three great-grandchildren, a brother and a sister.
Western Recorder issue date: October 28, 2008
|