Grant Gregory Hintze was born August 25, 1948, in Los Angeles, CA. From an early age, he lived life at full throttle and became a man of many passions. He was intelligent and very athletic. If he decided to do something, you could count on him pursuing his objective with passion and ultimate success. He became quite successful in basketball and played at Don Bosco Tech High School and Cal Poly Pomona College. Surprisingly, with no real background in the military, he told his best friend before starting his freshman year at Cal Poly that he was going to go to West Point. Two years later, he was a plebe in the Class of 1972.
Grant was assigned to the company with the reputation of being the toughest at the Academy at the time, Company F-1. He bonded with his brothers in misery during plebe year. He was an active member in the Cadet Fine Arts Forum, the Russian Club, and the Debate Council and Forum. He brought some of his fun-loving California attitude to his time at the academy. At the maximum height allowed at the time, Grant was hard to miss because he really did stand head and shoulders above the rest of us in F-1. He was a delight to room with due to his intelligence and great sense of humor. Even though he was only two years senior to most of his classmates, that gave him a maturity that many relied on. It also kept him out of some of the trouble many cadets found themselves in. Visiting his home in California was a treat because his mom fixed amazing Mexican food, all from scratch. As his posting in the cadet yearbook recalls about Grant: “New York City held no secrets for this lover of wine, women, and song. His outgoing personality earned him many lasting friendships.”
After graduation, Grant was commissioned in the Military Intelligence branch. He served active-duty tours in the 2nd Battalion, 39th Infantry Regiment, the tunnel neutralization team in the United Nations Command, South Korea and in the 8th Infantry Division in Germany. He also earned an MBA from the Naval Postgraduate School. During his active service, he was awarded the Commendation Medal and the Joint Service Commendation Medal. He left active service in 1984.
After leaving the service, Grant quickly transitioned to a career in private industry, where he applied his passion, intelligence, and drive to ever increasing positions of responsibility. He began as a business manager at Texas Instruments. He quickly worked his way up the corporate ladder, serving as controller at Loral Corporation, the CFO at Amp, Inc. and Infinysis Corp., and later as vice president for Finance at BF Goodrich Aero and president at GM De-icing and Specialty Services.
In his early years, he was quite the ladies’ man, but for his last 25 years Grant found his life partner in Karen Williams. They shared many wonderful life adventures.
Always Grant to his West Point classmates, he was known as Gregg to almost everyone else he knew from the time he was growing up in California. To really understand Gregg, it is best to quote his closest life friend, Jim Huddleston, who remembered him in his eulogy:
Gregg was an outstanding athlete. He wasn’t just talented. He was aggressive. Relentless. And he never backed down. He pounded you into submission.
Those same qualities that made him a great ballplayer represent the way he lived his life. Full attack mode. Aggressive and relentless. Never surrendering to anything.
That’s the way he lived worked and played.
If you’ve had the hair-raising experience of riding with him in a vehicle, you know that’s also the way he drove.
We became friends as teenagers and the friendship lasted a lifetime. Through shared experiences, I came to know Gregg as well as anyone could know him.
He was a man of great complexity.
One of the most intelligent men I have ever known, his talent was off the charts; his ambitions unlimited. Gregg aimed high from the earliest age. I began to recognize that he could achieve anything.
Like all of us, he encountered failure. Jobs that didn’t work out. Relationships that failed. A goal not achieved. I’ve never met anyone so capable of turning failure into success; disaster into opportunity. He always rose to something better.
Gregg was fascinated with eagles. His home was filled with pictures or sculptures of these birds. In many ways, he was like an eagle: Solitary. Fearless. Sharp eyed. Predatory. Soaring high above us.
Gregg wasn’t one for displays of emotion. For him, a handshake would do. But he was sentimental and thoughtful. He never forgot a birthday, anniversary, or other important event.
I want to honor another forever friend, Karen Williams, Gregg’s devoted life partner and steadfast caregiver. Karen was Gregg’s guardian angel. Always with him. Fighting for him. Trying so hard to ease his pain.
Gregg left us too early.
He wasn’t ready to go. He fought hard for life, harder than you can imagine. True to form, he refused to back down. He was relentless in seeking remission. Aggressive in treatment. Fought hard. Tried everything. He never surrendered.
Life didn’t short-change Gregg Hintze. He lived a life filled with meaning and achievement. He soared high. He laughed and cried. Lived and loved.”
Grant passed away at his home in Cave Creek, AZ on July 8, 2021. It was shocking to his classmates and companymates. One thing is sure—Grant knew how to live life to its fullest. Companymates joined his family and friends as he was laid to rest at the VA cemetery in Phoenix. He will be sorely missed but not forgotten. Rest in peace, good friend.
— F-1 Classmates, friends, and family