It’s official... our cousin Harley Grandin is a rowing champion! On February 7, Harley won the 11th Annual Peninsula Indoor Rowing Championship in the Lightweight Men’s Division, 2000 meter event. The event was held at Canada College in Redwood, CA. With a time of 6:52.3, Harley also set a new personal record! Harley was in 4th place for most of the race, but he gave a hard finishing sprint to win the very tight race. Second place finished only .4m behind Harley, and the top 3 finished within .3 seconds of each other.

Harley’s grandfather Dr. Frederick Orson "Fred" Johnson, of Berkeley, CA shared this news with us. He is very proud of his grandchildren, and rightfully so. Fred sent us news of Harley and sister Sarah Grandin back in October (2009). He shared then that Harley is looking forward to college next year and hopes to major in pre-med. With a 4.0 grade-point average and a combined SAT score of 1990, he can probably take his pick of colleges and universities, but he hopes to attend a school in the East where he can continue rowing.

Harley is a great-grandson of Howard Alexander and Virginia McNaughton Johnson (Parents of F. O. J.), 2x great-grandson of Frederick Orson “Fred” Johnson, and 3x great-grandson of Orson Thomas Johnson. Orson Thomas was a brother of Philip Paddelford Johnson.

We wish you the best of luck, Harley, in your college career and continued success in rowing. No doubt your determination and hard work will carry you far! Family members who would like to send congratulations to Harley can write to him at Harley(dot)Grandin(at)gmail(dot)com.