RIP Pierhead — Boyd Grant

Ken Jones

Administrator
Staff member
#1
It's with extreme sadness that I report the passing of Boyd Grant (Pierhead) at 9:40 this morning in Pittsburgh. I am at a loss for words but I considered Boyd a friend, a great man, a man of peace, the voice for the Goleta Pier, one of the main voices for UPSAC both in its founding and work over the years, and one of the strongest members of the PFIC family. I will hopefully write a few better words later but have included a connection to an article below that I wrote about Boyd several years ago for those who did not know him.

I talked to his wife and he will be cremated and his wishes were to have a ceremony at Goleta Pier. No date is set but it will not be before December and perhaps even later. I will post the information as I receive it.

http://kenjonesfishing.com/2012/03/end-of-a-dream-boyd-and-the-goleta-pier-angler-center/

Sand.Bass_Goleta_2003_Boyd_2.jpg .
 

Ken Jones

Administrator
Staff member
#2
Boyd's Pier Rat Autobiography — Pier Rat Name: PierHead

Real Name: Boyd

Personal Information And Occupation: Born under the sign of Sagittarius in Santa Barbara, CA mid WW2. Spent my formative years under the cloud' of the atomic bomb — the good nuns did their best to comply with the mandatory duck & cover drills without unduly alarming their younger charges but it left a lasting impression of how temporary and insecure all life is - my outlook is clearly Carpe Diem (seize the day). And fishing became my escape from 'adult' reality as well as my entry into the world of nature.

During the early 60's I attended UCSB off and on while exploring first the civil rights movement and later the free speech and anti-war movements. Attended the Joan Baez Institute of Non-Violence in Carmel Valley; read Thoreau and Gandhi; practiced meditation and Yoga; hitchhiked the Big Sur coast and lived in a commune. Got lost in the haze of the Summer of Love and re-emerged in 1969 as a social worker in post-riot East and Central L.A. after completing my B.A. in Religious Studies.

By the mid 70's I was married and living the 'good life' in the new planned community of Mission Viejo. By the end of that decade I was divorced and living in Mammoth Lakes with my young son and trying to run the welfare department there in an increasingly hostile small-town atmosphere. Returned to LA to manage several restaurants and other pick-up jobs until signing on for a 20 year rollercoaster ride at GTE in customer service and sales. Retired in 2000 and now working nights as a DSL equipment installer doing contract work for Verizon in their central offices. Still unmarried and enjoying it! But if the right person came along I could easily assume the title of the Old Fisherman with the Catch of His Life.

Years Fishing: 50+

Years of Hardcore Fishing: 13. Prior to my father's passing in 1989 fishing was more of an escape than an active exploration. I had been estranged >from my parents since my marriage - I had made a poor choice for a life's companion and found it hard to admit. In early 1989 I called my father (my mother had died some time before) to effect a reconciliation and invited him to go fishing with his grandson and myself. But when we got there we found him on the kitchen floor felled by a stroke. I still remember opening the refrigerator later that day and seeing the bait he had prepared for us to use. And the memories of a childhood filled with fishing adventures came flooding back along with the tears of regret for the estrangement. I returned to SB to take care of him until his death later that year but, due to his incapacity, we never fished together again. After the funeral my family and I went to Goleta Pier and soaked some bait in his memory. From that moment on I found myself filled with a desire to take fishing seriously...

First Memories Of Fishing: My first fishing trip was with my Dad and my two younger (twin) brothers around 1950. He took us down to Stearn's Wharf in SB after spending the previous evening sitting around the kitchen table with him learning how to clean the poles and reline the reels that he hadn't had much chance to use following his marriage (5 children — 4 living at that time) some 15 years earlier. Stearn's, in the 50's, had an abalone processing plant right at the end of the pier with an enormous pile of discarded shells and big buckets of guts. There was also an anchovy offloading siphon pipe with a large fish-spilling tear in the side that chummed live bait into the water below. We could hardly contain ourselves and Dad reigned us in a very forceful manner for 'our own good' — my ears burned for the rest of the day from that first lesson in pier safety! We caught a full gunnysack of what he called horse mackerel — enormous fish at least 24” in length. I was hooked. From that day on it was a weekly ritual to go fishing. On my own block alone there were 10 boys and 4 girls — quite a sight as we paraded the two miles down to the Wharf on our bikes with fishing poles in hand.

Favorite Piers (And Why): Stearn's Wharf and Goleta Pier. My boyhood was spent at the Wharf... it was where my father had first fished with his father and where my maternal grandfather had his lumber company in the 20's. And fishing at Goleta for halibut had become my father's favorite form of outdoor recreation as my mother's incapacity increased during her final years. But, in actuality, any wooden pier anywhere on the coast. In fact it was my fascination with wooden piers that led me to pierfishing.com... I had wanted to write a book documenting the history and social import of wooden piers in honor of my father. Of course the first hit on the search engine was this site! Needless to say the book had already been written by the master himself. Finding this site completed a circle that had been broken by the estrangement and my father's death ... I felt like I had been reunited with the fishing community. In jimbojack's words: 'Like coming home'.

Favorite Fish: The first fish of any new species! My first halibut — lost around the pilings at Stearn's wharf when I was 9. The 5# Bass at Cachuma Lake taken on a Black Bomber at twilight in a secluded cove shortly after my mother's last call for supper during the summer of my 10th year. The 3.5# cabezon that tumbled me off the riprap and initiated me into the Rincon Rock Diver's Club. A 3# Calico Bass which nailed a frozen anchovy floating on the top of the kelp reef at Goleta before I had a chance to recast. The 3 10#+ Shovelnose caught in a two hour period off the end of the Goleta Pier. My son's first fish memorialized in papier-mâché by his 4th grade teacher. My granddaughter's sand dab caught at Goleta. And last, but not least... the salamander fished out of the creek behind Mission Santa Barbara using a bent pin and a berry from a pyracantha bush when I was 7... my first successful catch!

Most Memorable Pier Fishing Trips (And Why): Every trip is memorable in some way — especially now that I am approaching my 6th decade! It used to be that the memories were created by the fish caught but in the last 3-4 years I'm noticing that people are increasingly at the center of those memories. I've always done poorly with names but since making an effort by introducing myself and keeping a list of the names that I have accumulated there are almost 20 people who I recognize at Goleta alone — not to mention the increasing number of Pier Rats I am running into. But overall — I have to say the Catalina Get Together 2002 is my most fondest memory to date. And apparently I am not alone in that given the number and nature of posts on the subject since our return!

Words Of Wisdom For Pier Rats: There is more to fishing than catching... slow down and enjoy the whole of creation. You only go around once.

Boyd at our first Catalina Get Together in 2002.

Cat_2002_GPP_Sculpin_Boyd1.jpg
 

Red Fish

Senior Member
#6
A very intelligent fellow, Boyd Grant will be missed. I’ll never forget on that first Goleta get-together, after calling him Mr. Grant a couple times, he said, “Call me Boyd,” and I did from that day forward.

A kind gentleman, always thinking of others. A steward to fish conservation and an ambassador for Goleta Pier.

Some of his most complete PFIC bio I just now recall. He had lived quite a full life before he joined the ranks of PFIC/UPSAC and I don’t believe there was a more perfect union, a marriage, of Boyd and UPSAC as the timing was right. His ideals, inspiration, spirituality, and good nature I feel were synonymous with the intent of UPSAC in bringing our shore/Pier Fishing community together. And I feel, personally, that through his efforts and others, most of those goals were realized.

One last tidbit of information about Boyd Grant that I found unusually exciting is that he told me he used to build and race stock cars with family. I found out about this a few years back as we were conversing at a Catalina PFIC/UPSAC get together.

RIP Boyd - gone, but eternal to the Pier Fishing community.
 
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Mahigeer

Senior Member
#7
As the Turks would say "may he rest in light".

He was very nice man as mentioned above. I was lucky to have met him and be considered by him as a friend.

Now his suffering has ended.

He will not be forgotten, and by remembering him he will be with us.
 
#8
Sorry to hear this. I never met the gentleman, but he made his presence felt on the message boards with his humor, knowledge and good cheer. May he rest in peace.
 
#11
Monte (also RIP) and I got to hang out with Boyd for a good part of the day before the MMD that year he came up. He was a good, kind-hearted man. Condolences to his friends and family.
 
#12
I forgot about Monte and Big Rich. I think there are more, but I cannot recall. Perhaps because I did not meet them.

Wow, too many.

Perhaps a "sticky" on the fishing comrades that have passed away.

A way of keeping them in our thoughts.
 
#14
Monte (also RIP) and I got to hang out with Boyd for a good part of the day before the MMD that year he came up. He was a good, kind-hearted man. Condolences to his friends and family.
I am sorry to heat of Monte's passing. He and I had kept in touch over the years. I didn't realize he was gone. He was a good man.
 
#15
I had the privilege to meet Boyd years back at goleta's little service center/bait shop on the pier, he was busy but told me to fish the elbow and cast right up against the pipeline, I wound up with a nice calico and several walleyed perch (all released) when I had finished I planned to stop back by the "shed" but he was gone, so I never got to thank him, I've enjoyed the memory of that gentle spirit ever since.
 

Red Fish

Senior Member
#16
Words Of Wisdom For Pier Rats: There is more to fishing than catching... slow down and enjoy the whole of creation. You only go around once.

Something that takes many years of fishing to appreciate sometimes. I think I am there at this point in my angling.

Ken, while I am cognizant of it:
1. I don’t believe I will be able to attend Boyd’s service at Goleta Pier Jan. 26, 2019 (there’s always a remote possibility).

2. It would be nice to have a memorial page on the website (after all these years of fallen anglers that were long time members and friends).
 

Ken Jones

Administrator
Staff member
#17
For those coming to Boyd's memorial service, we will meet at the restaurant at the foot of the pier at 12:30 on January 26..