Passage IV

A Problem Solver and an Inventor

Dr. George Franklin Grant was a brilliant, innovative dentist and a professor at Harvard University. But the achievement that he is most widely remembered for today is his invention and creation of the wooden golf tee.

An avid golfer, Dr. Grant invented and patented the tee in 1899. Before his invention, golfers preparing to tee off (hit their first shot) had to shape a mound of moist dirt or sand to raise the golf ball off the turf in order to hit it cleanly. Unfortunately, the ball would often roll off the handmade mound before the golfer could complete his or her swing. By both raising and stabilizing the ball, Grant's invention remedied this problem.

The tee Dr. Grant invented was not marketed for commercial use. After earning his doctor of dental surgery degree from Harvard University in 1870, Grant became one of Harvard's first African American professors. An internationally recognized expert in mechanical dentistry, he designed a new style of dental bridge, a device that provides support for individuals who have lost or broken teeth. Those constructed according to Grants design fit so well and so comfortably that the general health of his patients have been measurably improved.

Dr. Grant's invention of the golf tee and his innovative dental bridge may seem to be an unlikely pairing. However, each accomplishment exemplifies a characteristic common to innovators:the ability to identify and solve a problem. In both of these cases,Grant recognized a need and focused his skills, imagination, and intelligence to devising a way to fill that need.

Instead, Dr. George Franklin Grant made a Iasting impression on the world as an innovative engineer in both of the fields he loved. A brilliant professor of dentistry: he is best remembered for making it possible for generations of golfers concentrated on their swings without worrying about whether their golf balls would remain in place as they swung.