Grant passed away peacefully in the early morning of October 9, 2025 in Richland, WA.  

Grant was born June 29, 1940 and was raised in Rock Springs Wyoming and graduated from Rock Springs High School in 1958. Grant went to college at the University of Wyoming, 1958 – 1962, graduated with Honors in Physics and a minor in Mathematics. He also went to the University of Hartford in 1991 and  graduated with an Executive Masters in Business Administration.

Grant spent almost his entire working career with nuclear power plants.  In 1962, he started at Hanford as a Tech Grad.   He became the reactor physicist at D and KE reactors and later he became a reactor operations shift supervisor at KE reactor.

When Grant came to Hanford, he was living in a fantastic bachelor pad (The SNOB House) with three other guys.  He also had a boat and spent a great deal of time on the Columbia River.  In 1964 he met his wife, Judy Fatur, instantly fell in love and was married three months later, a marriage that has lasted for more than 60 years.  As soon as Grant and Judy had their first son, John, Grant had to sell the boat to buy a washer and dryer and some other “family” furniture.

In 1968 Grant  joined GE’s commercial nuclear reactor startup crew where he participated in the startup of Oyster Creek in New Jersey and Nuclenor in Spain.  Next he went to work for Boston Edison Co. at Pilgrim Station where he was in charge of the plant start up and then became the Plant Manager for the first fuel cycle of plant operation.   After Pilgrim, Grant joined the Electric Power Research Institute in Palo Alto, CA to help develop and bring into commercial service the first commercial liquid metal fast breeder reactor.  The breeder reactor was Grant’s dream, but after the Three Mile Island accident, President Carter stopped all work on the breeder program. Grant then rejoined the commercial nuclear reactor program at Northeast Utilities in Connecticut where he organized support services to help them with operation and maintenance of their commercial nuclear reactors post Three Mile Island.

In 1994,  when retirement was looking over the horizon, Grant decided to come back to the Tri-Cities where he finished his working career with some safety review board consulting work with DOE at Hanford and with the Army Corp of Engineering at Umatilla.

Grant’s family were the most important of all things to him.  He will be missed by many who took the time to understand his gentle, kind and intelligent existence.  Crossword puzzles will never be completed and sudoku puzzles will remain unsolved.

Grant is survived by his wife, Judy, and his son John Baston (Lori),  daughter, Angela McKeone (John) and son, Charles Baston.  In addition, his grandchildren, Tyler McKeone and Meaghan Isern (Golbert); great grandchildren, Colten McKeone and Reagan and Olivia Isern.

He is also survived by his sister, Karla Rochlitz (Ken) and brother-in-law, Michael Fatur (Linda) as well as many nieces and nephews.  There will be no viewing or service for Grant.