Henry Granison leaves legacy of compassion, dedication

Henry Charles Granison, known as “Charles” to his family of origin, died of cancer Nov. 5 of this year. Granison was a Tompkins County legislator dedicated to serving his community, and his death came shortly after his health-motivated resignation Oct. 31. To hear it from his loved ones, Granison left a widespread legacy throughout the community, one those who knew him won’t soon forget.

According to Granison’s obituary (ithacajournal.com/obituaries/bps133487), Granison spent most of his years before joining the Legislature studying, practicing and teaching law. He attended Harvard University and Cornell Law School and “practiced law in Boston and Minneapolis before moving back to Ithaca in 1999 to join Cornell Law School’s admissions team,” the obituary said.

Granison met his wife, Mary Beth “MB” Grant, while studying at Cornell Law School. She explained that they met at a “wine and cheese” event the day before classes started their first year there.

“A classmate introduced us as Henry was on his way to go play squash,” Grant said. “And the classmate said, ‘Oh, Mary Beth, have you met Henry? He went to Harvard.’ And Henry just looked so embarrassed because he was a super humble man and would never brag about anything.”

While not much happened that first semester, by the next spring, the two were part of the Cornell Law School Student Association. There, they became good friends, and in May, they started dating.

Grant said that during and after law school, Granison was particularly interested in improving diversity, equity and inclusion in the law profession, primarily by recruiting students of color to law school and attorneys of color to law firms. That mission led him to Cornell Law School’s admissions team and, later, to Tompkins Cortland Community College, where he taught a paralegal class as an adjunct professor.

“He loved the admissions work that he did at the law school to help people get into the profession,” Grant said. “He really spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to expand the profession so that it wasn’t the stereotypical patriarchy of rich white men. … And he spent a lot of time trying to learn why were there performance gaps on some of these standardized tests, for example. Or how could we get pipelines to communities of color so we weren’t just looking at people who were seniors in college for admission to law school, but start looking at them in high school or even younger.”

After briefly moving away to Westchester, New York, Granison made his way back home to Ithaca, where he stayed until he died. Once he semi-retired, Granison continued teaching at Tompkins Cortland and engaged in numerous volunteer opportunities, especially at the local library.

Following the presidential election of 2016, out of a desire to get more involved in public office — and after some nudges from locals — Granison came out of semi-retirement to run for the Tompkins County Legislature. He was elected in 2017 and reelected in 2021.

It was during Granison’s initial run that he greatly connected with other community leaders, especially the other four candidates running for the Legislature at the time — current legislators Anne Koreman, Deborah Dawson, Amanda Champion and Shawna Black. The five of them bonded so much during their campaign that they affectionately called themselves the “fab five.”

Prior to being elected, the “fab five” spent a lot of time observing the Legislature, which other members said he did regularly.

“He was very committed,” Koreman said. “We had a lot of discussions about watching the Legislature, and he’s very thoughtful of, ‘why are they doing this?’ or ‘why are they voting on this?’ or ‘why isn’t this question asked?’ So, he was very curious. And him and I had a lot of process questions and then started off really early with the values of things that he thought were important. And I think he kind of reconfirmed that he wanted to run for office to get in there and make a difference.”

After being elected, the five spent many hours visiting all the different county departments and facilities, and several of the “fab five” said it’s these trips that they’ll always remember fondly.

“Henry took it very seriously,” Champion said. “We all took it very seriously, but we also had a lot of fun. And I think throughout that time and that process of all these meetings together and these tours and getting to know department heads that that was really how I got to know Henry.”

Black also shared some memories of Granison, including what he was like outside of the Legislature.

“Henry and I spent many hours together outside of work,” she said in an email. “A few years ago, we drove together to our annual [New York State Association of Counties] conference. We talked non-stop about our families, state of politics, and when we got in later that evening to our hotel, I was happy to have a friend with me at the blackjack tables of our hotel casino.”

Granison made some new connections in his second campaign period when other Legislature candidates decided to throw their hats into the ring. One such legislator is Veronica Pillar, who was elected just last year. They shared that while their time knowing Granison was brief, they thoroughly enjoyed working with him.

“I liked him,” they said. “He was very friendly. We talked about the Legislature. We started talking about dogs. … He didn’t seem to get angry or judgmental, at least not as much as other folks, including me, even though you could tell that he cared very deeply about certain things. But, he also got along with people, and I really wish I could have worked with him while he was well. … He always seemed to try to bring an even balance to whatever we were talking about.”

One of the biggest ways Granison showed his dedication to his constituents once elected was sending daily emails via his community listserv updating residents on all the statistics related to COVID-19 throughout the early days of the pandemic.

“Henry did a really extraordinary job of keeping his constituents informed, digging out the information that people needed to allay their fears and concerns during the pandemic,” Dawson said. “He had a daily email that he sent out telling everybody on his listserv where we stood with the pandemic response and the numbers. And he was the one that really stayed on top of making Frank Kruppa tell us what our constituents wanted to know. He did an exceptional job with that.”

Throughout his tenure, Granison remained dedicated to diversity, equity and inclusion. In 2019, he was instrumental in the county’s move to fly the Pan-African Flag over various Tompkins County buildings every year during African American History Month, and in 2022, Granison spearheaded the effort to make Juneteenth a paid employee holiday (tinyurl.com/23qspwd7). Sources shared that they’re glad these traditions will continue long after Granison’s death.

In addition to his community service, family was greatly important to Granison, sources attested. Grant and Henry had two children together — Charlotte and Samantha Granison — and Henry loved them deeply, Grant said. She explained that his desire to have children of his own was spurred in the summer of 1986, when Grant’s friend let Henry hold her newborn, Lisa.

“He’s a very large person — he’s 6’4”, over 200 pounds — and holding this little tiny baby was the most adorable thing,” Grant said. “He had fallen in love with Lisa. And then, when her little brother, Andy, came along, he had fallen in love with them and was therefore open to the idea of children. And when Charlotte was born, Charlotte had Henry’s face, so he fell deeply in love with his first daughter and then was eager to have a second child and fell equally in love with her.”

Samantha spoke fondly of her late father, highlighting a particularly sweet memory of her family’s participation in the annual egg drop put on by the Sciencenter.

“Whatever we had buil[t] was unstable so daddy was on the ground holding it together for us until it was time for the drop,” she said in a text. “And I said that’s such a good example of dad, silently making sure you get what you want/need.”

Henry was a rather private, reserved person, as many sources described, so it wasn’t until very recently that anyone at the Legislature was even aware of his poor health. As humble as he was, though, Grant said she was glad he spoke up about his health before he died so he could really feel just how loved he was.

“He would have been perfectly happy just sort of fading into the night, and he didn’t really want to tell anyone that he was sick,” she said. “And the idea of having to resign and to have people know that he was not going to be with us much longer, he’s like, ‘I don’t want to do that.’ … But for me, it was so nice because he got so many letters and emails and Facebook photos and pictures and dinners and visits from people to say, ‘Well done, Henry, thank you. We appreciated you.’ And I’m really glad he got to know that he was loved.”

Sources interviewed expressed support for Grant and her family in the coming weeks, with many acknowledging that the coming year won’t be easy.

“I’m heartbroken for them. I know that they were a very close family and he was a really kind and thoughtful man, and I know he will be missed by them,” Champion said. “He will be missed by us as well, his colleagues and his friends, and I wish [his family] peace and love in the coming days. I know it’ll be a huge adjustment for them. But I also know there’s a lot of community support in getting through this.”

Calling hours were held Nov. 11 at Bangs Funeral Home, and the funeral was held at St. Catherine of Siena on Nov. 12.

Jessica Wickham is the managing editor of Tompkins Weekly. Send story ideas to them at editorial@VizellaMedia.com.