Elliot Thomas Grant

On December 24, 2017, Elliot T. Grant passed away, surrounded by his loving family and friends. Beloved by all who knew him, Elliot leaves behind his wife Anne Christine Grant; two sons, Aidan and Logan; parents Sharon (Sforzini) and Steven; and friends too numerous to count. Born in Cambridge, MA, in 1970, Elliot was an early and avid reader, a passion he maintained all his life. The family moved to the DC area in 1972. Elliot attended elementary schools in Alexandria, VA, distinguishing himself in AP classes and making school-wide PA announcements at age 5.

When the family made another move, in 1982, to Moscow USSR, Elliot immersed himself entirely in Soviet Russian culture. He attended the celebrated School 45 and made many friends among his Russian classmates, some of whom have remained close to the present. While in Moscow, Elliot began taking classical guitar lessons from a local Russian teacher. Having begun piano lessons while in grade school, he also had the good fortune and great pleasure of continuing his piano studies – alongside his mother – with a former concert mistress of the Moscow Conservatory of Music.

Returning to the States in 1985, Elliot entered Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, graduating with honors. Along the way, he led the BCC “It’s Academic” team to several wins and took a leading role in school plays (Harvey, Guys and Dolls, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead). He then attended Yale University, majoring in Theater and Philosophy, with hopes of a career in the theater. While interning with the Circle Rep Theater in NYC, he wrote a play that he directed and produced off-off-Broadway. At this time also he met his future wife Anne, who was pursuing graduate studies in forensic psychology. Elliot then made a career switch that proved decisive, becoming a copy editor at PC Magazine. Thus began his lifelong fascination with and love for all things electronic and computer-related.

In 1995 Elliot and Anne returned to the DC area, where he soon started up his own firm to do web design. After a time he joined Eagle Design, which in turn was later taken over by the large contractor Westat, with whom he remained as a website manager until his passing.

Elliot and Anne adopted two children: Aidan at 5 months of age from South Korea, and Logan at 7 years of age from Vietnam. Both boys are now teenagers.

A personality neither bubbly nor somber, Elliot’s quiet strengths were his great sense of humor (and good humor), generosity of spirit, integrity, courage, and fortitude – all traits he displayed through his long battle with pancreatic cancer and its increasingly debilitating effects (and documented on his website, still accessible). He even embarked on a final-year tour of  great DC area restaurants to show his commitment to life.

Besides books, Elliot’s passions included bridge (becoming a life master along with his close friend and bridge partner Jacob Davenport), crossword puzzles (especially cryptic X-words), “treasure hunts” (actively participating in the annual Washington Post hunts as well as staging his own for friends), good movies, and family history. Most of these interests are reflected in various sections of his personal website: etgdesign.com. His app for improving bridge bidding is still selling well. He developed his own computer program for the website to produce an extensive family genealogy that ran both vertically (through generations) and horizontally (to in-laws and collateral family lines by marriage). No clan gathering, in fact, seemed complete without the presence of our “family historian” taking copious notes for the website. 

Anne and Elliot enjoyed travel, both in-country and abroad. One of their proudest accomplishments was the purchase of a large plot of land in Derwood, MD, where they worked with a local architect to plan a beautiful, ecologically sound new home – a dream Elliot had had since high school.

With his quick wit and even quicker smile, Elliot made lifelong friends wherever he went and wherever he worked. All are missing him today.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests those wishing to honor Elliot make a donation in his name to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (pancan.org).