Celebrating Black History Month – Dr. George Franklin Grant
While not a native of Boston, Dr. George Franklin spent most of his adult life there. He was born in 1846 in Oswego, NY and at the age of 22 entered the arvard School of Dental Medicine, graduating in just two years. A year later, Dr. Grant became the first African American falculty member of America’s most prestigious university. While at Harvard Dr. Grant invented the oblate palate, a prosthetic used for the treatment of cleft palate and something he is probably even more famous for, the invention of the wooden golf tee.
Dr. Grant was elected president of the Harvard Alumni Association in 1881. He died of liver disease at his vacation home in New Hampshire in 1910.
