Sporting goods manager.
Born at Winnipeg on 20 September 1922 to James “Jim” Grant and Mary Glint Linklater, he resided there for the entire 90 years of his life. Growing up in the St. James community, he attended Strathmillan School and St. John's College. Although initially pursuing a career as a chartered accountant, the Second World War changed things and he joined the Royal Canadian Navy. Upon leaving the Navy, his passion for sports led him to the sporting goods industry, where he landed a job with Groff Agencies in the early 1950s as a manufacturer's agent. He eventually moved to Cooper-Weeks Limited (Cooper Canada), where he worked for the remainder of his career, retiring as Western Sales Manager in 1987. On 27 April 1951, he married Robina “Bobbie” Clare MacLeod (1923-2014), with whom he had two children.
Recognized as a person of great integrity, he was known as “The Deacon,” or “Deke” to his many friends. He had a strong sense of tradition and took pride in supporting the community. He was President of the Kiwanis Club of Winnipeg, a member of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers Executive Committee, a member of the organizing committee for the 1967 Pan Am Games (baseball), a member of the management support for Canada’s 1982 World Championship Hockey team that competed in Sweden, an active member of the Winnipeg Canoe Club and the Winnipeg Ski Club, and a long-time executive board member of the Fort Whyte Centre.
Because his mother and father had been among the first summer residents to build a vacation home in the Victoria Beach area, he felt a strong attachment to the place and spent most of his summers there. The Grant cottage was always a hub of activity for family and friends. He enjoyed cruising the shores of Lake Winnipeg in a yellow Thompson motorboat and many a barbecue social on Elk Island. Playing horseshoes on Sunday morning was a tradition with his friends, and later that group of “VB boys” purchased a few Enterprise sailboats, resulting in the establishment of the Victoria Beach Yacht Club.
He died at Winnipeg on 18 October 2012 and was buried in the Victoria Beach Cemetery.
Birth registration [David Kinnell Grant], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 22 October 2012.
“David Kinnell Grant,” Lewis Bradford Wight Family Tree, Ancestry.
This page was prepared by Lois Braun.
Page revised: 23 April 2026
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