George Franklin Grant

George Franklin Grant (September 15, 1846 – August 21, 1910) was the first African-American professor at Harvard. He was also a Boston dentist, and an inventor of an early composite golf tee made from wood and natural rubber (specifically, gutta-percha) tubing.^[1][2][3]

Dr. George Franklin Grant
Grant in 1870
Born	September 15, 1846 Oswego, New York
Died	August 21, 1910(1910-08-21) (aged 63) Chester, New Hampshire
Education	Harvard School of Dental Medicine class of 1870
Occupation(s)	Dentist, academic, inventor
Spouse	Georgina H. Smith
Children	Maybelle C.Grant (Mrs. Alfred P. Russell) George F. Grant, Jr. Frances O. Grant Theodora Grant, Helene Grant
Parent(s)	Phillis Pitt Tudor Elandor Grant

Golf tee patent, granted December 12, 1899

Biography

Grant was born on September 15, 1846, in Oswego, New York, to Phillis Pitt and Tudor Elandor Grant.^[4][5] He attended the Bordentown School in Bordentown, New Jersey.^[6]

He entered the Harvard Dental School (now the Harvard School of Dental Medicine) in 1868, and graduated in 1870. He then took a position in the department of mechanical dentistry in 1871, making him Harvard University's first African-American faculty member.^[7]

Grant was a founding member and later the president of the Harvard Odontological Society and was a member of the Harvard Dental Alumni Association where he was elected president in 1881. In 1899 he improved on Percy Ellis' "Perfectum" tee.^[8][9]

Grant died on August 21, 1910, at his vacation home in Chester, New Hampshire, of liver disease.^[10]

Patent

• U.S. patent 638,920

See also

• William Lowell Sr., another golf tee inventor