Grant Preston Elliott

May 25, 1948 - September 11, 2015

Grant Preston Elliott Obituary The Cowboy Rides Away Grant Preston Elliott, May 25, 1948 ? September 11, 2015 On the afternoon of September 11, 2015, Grant Elliott passed away peacefully after suffering a heart attack on August 31st. He was sixty-seven years old. At the time of his passing Grant was surrounded and comforted by his family and friends. Grant was born on May 25, 1948 in Ventura, CA, a sunny beach town just outside of Los Angeles. He was the only son of Richard Elmer Elliott and Irene Marie Adamoli. From the beginning of his life Grant faced challenges head on with perseverance and humor. Stricken with polio, a crippling childhood disease, he refused to let the illness define his life. He learned to be tough and fight hard ? skills that would come in handy many times in his future. Against all odds, Grant became a top athlete. He played Varsity basketball and excelled at Varsity tennis ? where he led his team to the division championship his senior year. He became a top downhill ski racer in California and Oregon where he gained a reputation for carving huge, powerful, high-speed turns - and winning trophies up and down the West coast. He demonstrated his true grit during one particular race in which he shattered his shoulder ? yet still finished in the top ten. After spending most of his childhood in Southern CA, and enduring his parents? eventual divorce, Grant moved with his father and his new stepmother, Patricia, to the small mountain town of Bend, Or, where he graduated from Bend High School with the class of 1966. After high school Grant enrolled in Southern Oregon College and obtained a Liberal Arts degree. While at SOC he founded the college rodeo team, which led him eventually to compete professionally as a steer wrestler, calf roper, a saddle bronc rider, and one time, a bull rider. He spent early summers working as a smoke jumper for the US Forest Service parachuting from planes into remote areas to fight forest fires. Of all activities, Grant?s favorites were hunting and fishing in the great outdoors. Whether with gun or bow or rod, he was known to spend months each year in the high mountains in pursuit of trout, salmon, deer, elk, moose, and bear. During the 1970s, Grant met and married his first wife, Cindy Rehn, with whom he had three extraordinary children, Melissa, James and Daniel. Eventually Grant?s love of people and the outdoors led him to Northern Idaho and Eastern Washington where he would spend the rest of his life as a husband, father, teacher and coach in the mountain wonderland of his beloved Pacific NW. His first job was in Newport, WA where he served briefly as a Head Start teacher. Soon though Grant followed his chosen path; he left Newport for Priest River where he became a physical education teacher and team coach for football, basketball and track. In those positions which he loved, he took special pride in training and mentoring young people and preparing them to become successful adults. In 1980 he was inducted into the Idaho Sports Hall of Fame. Grant?s love of people and warm sense of humor touched the lives of a few thousand students, athletes and parents during a proud thirty-three year career at Priest River Junior High School. After Grant?s separation from Cindy he met the love of his life, Pamela Russell-Elliott, and her two children Tyler and Megan. Together Grant and Pam raised a wild, crazy fun family of seven. After a long career and a happy professional life, Grant retired in 2005 to dedicate his life to his wife and family and to enjoy his lifelong passion for the outdoors. In the fall of 2010 Grant was involved in a major hunting accident during which he was nearly killed. Grant was tough from childhood and he had confronted adversity before so, with the help of his family, he battled his life threatening injuries. He kept his sense of humor as he endured seven operations and months of physical therapy. Against all odds, he learned to walk again and survived and recovered. His first act after his full recovery was to race down to the Fish & Game Department to renew his hunting license. He always laughed and he would never quit. The next hurdle in Grant?s life would prove his most difficult. Grant and his family were dealt a heavy blow in August of 2011, when his first-born son, James, unexpectedly died at age twenty-eight. Recovery from this heartbreaking tragedy seemed nearly impossible at the time but Grant and the family pulled together and did their best to lean on and support one another. It is a testament to their love that they held it together, survived, and grew even stronger. In later years Grant spent more and more time acting in movies and television - an activity that satisfied his creative side and also allowed him to have a lot of fun. Way back in the sixties, when Grant was in college, he had worked on his first movie, ?The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid,? in which he played a baseball pitcher. He was hooked - but he set aside movie stardom for a life of family and service. After retirement Grant took acting up again and had recently enjoyed memorable roles in films ranging from ?Smokin? Aces: Assassins Ball? in which he gave power to the role of Agent Partch; ?Beethoven?s Big Break? in which he portrayed Charles Grodin; ?My Best Friend?s Girl? in which he played Kate Hudson?s father; and ?Scorpion King: Quest for Power? where he brought energy and life to his role as Lavarta, Advisor to the King. He is perhaps best known as the father of the bride in the four popular ?Prince and Me? movies. Grant Elliott was often called, ?The Cast Iron Cowboy?. He was tough and as smooth as old leather. He was forever tied to the free life, the outdoors, the land, the mountains, the rushing rivers, the clouds and the color of the sky. He was a simple, direct, charming, and humble man. He believed in things like liberty and minding his own business. He respected and loved animals. He got pleasure from simple things like breathing in crisp clean mountain air, fishing along the St. Joe, and watching the sunset. He?d happily drop everything to help a stranger in need. He was tough. He would always get back on his horse. He smiled and did his best with the hand he was dealt. He was honest. He listened to his parents. And he held family high above all. Grant Elliott was a teacher. He was a lover of life and a thrill seeker before that term was ever used. He hunted elk and bear and wolves in the high peaks. He jumped from airplanes. He rode wild horses and raging rivers. He stood on summits of mountains and felt the sun on his face. He raised extraordinary children. He was a passionate husband. He was a man who stood at the helm of his own destiny. Grant?s Funeral Mass will be held at: 10:00am on Saturday, September 19, 2015 at St. Mary?s Catholic Church. The Church is located at 304 South Adams Rd, Spokane Valley, WA 99216. Reception to follow at: McDonald Elementary from 11:30am-2:30pm, located at 1512 S. McDonald Rd. Spokane Valley, WA 99216. Grant will be interred next to his son, James, at Greenwood Memorial Terrace in Spokane, WA. The last goodbye is the hardest one to say. Grant Preston Elliott, September 11, 2015, Rest in Peace. Grant is preceded in death by his son, James Grant Elliott, by his parents, Richard Elmer Elliott and Irene Marie Adamoli, and by his sister, Lucille White. Grant is survived by his loving wife Pamela Sue Russell-Elliott, son Daniel Cole Elliott, daughter Melissa Marie Scott (Elliott), son-in-law Brian David Scott, granddaughter Mallory Rehn Scott, and grandson Austin Grant Elliott Cunningham. He is also survived by his stepmother Patricia Angela Elliott (Fredrick Boyle), brothers: Michael Robert Elliott and Timothy Grant Elliott, stepchildren: James Tyler Kinnie and Megan Sue Kinnie. His sisters-in-law?s: Jennifer Marie Elliott, Kristen Adrienne Elliott, Jody Lynn Russell, Kimberly Jo Gailey and brother-in-law Joseph Michael Russell. Grant is further survived by his loving family; aunts: Michaelene Harrington and Noel Anne Harrington-Aydin (Nusret Aydin) and uncle Steven Harrington. Cousins: Melissa Robinson-Wesswick (Todd Wesswick), Theresa Robinson-Pew, Colleen Robinson-Carney, Darrell Harrington, Daniel Aydin. Nieces: Annie Elliott, Taylor White, Lauren Gailey and Devon Smith. Nephews: Michael Elliott, Cowboy Elliott, Travis White, Spencer White, Gunnar Gailey and Dylan Brantley. Extended family: Jon, Hannah, Flora & Clem Binninger, Herschel & Pat Endicott and family, Dennis & Colleen Meek and family, Jason, Kimberly, Maximus & Emilia Morton, and not forgetting the countless others whom Grant loved. In lieu of flowers or donations please go have a red beer and raise a toast to Grant.