Ed Grisamore is a columnist for The Macon Telegraph and the recipient of the 2010 Will Rogers Humanitarian Award, presented by the National Society of Newspaper Columnists.
He is a native of Atlanta and graduated cum laude from the University of Georgia with a degree in journalism.
He began his newspaper career in the Telegraph sports department, where he was an editor, reporter and columnist. He began writing local columns in December 1996 and replaced legendary columnist Bill Boyd in June 1998.
Ed is the author of six books and has won more than 45 writing awards. He is turning his latest book, “Once You Step in Elephant Manure You’re in the Circus Forever: The Life and Sometimes of Durwood ‘Mr. Doubletalk’ Fincher” into a musical called “Durworld” that will performed by the Youth Actors Company at Theatre Macon on Nov. 6-14, 2010.
He was featured in the November 2005 issue of “Georgia Trend” magazine in a story called “A Way With Words” and listed in the “Who’s Who Among Georgia Newspaper Columnists.”
His audiobook, Gris & That, is a collection of 16 columns as read by the author and available on CD. It was nominated for a Grammy in the “Spoken Word” category. He has twice been nominated for “Georgia Author of the Year” in the Creative Non-Fiction category. He has provided commentary on the “Georgia Gazette” program on Georgia Public Radio and is a popular speaker in Macon and Middle Georgia.
In 2008, Ed was inducted into the Macon Sports Hall of Fame for “contribution to sports” in the city. He is involved in numerous community activities, including serving as a volunteer tour bus guide for the Cherry Blossom Festival, serving as an advisor for local high school newspaper staffs and teaching classes on “writing your autobiography’’ for senior citizens.
Ed and his wife, Delinda, have co-authored three sons — Ed , Grant and Jake. He is a member of First Baptist Church in Macon.
He is very proud to have the chicken tender salad at Molly’s Café in downtown Macon named in his honor – the “True Gris’’ special.
Hello Ed,
Although I don’t live in the Macon area, my daughter and son-in-law do. I have seen your editorials often, and to my surprise, I found your penings to be very interesting. Your article about 1,000 friends cracked me up.. It’s amazing how many loyal followers you can touch by the printed word..Your profession may someday go the way of the dinosauer..Hopefully not in my lifetime.. Please continue to regale us of your articles and THANX for a jon well done.
SFC/USArmy (ret)
Jerry G Cramer
Glennville, (Long county) Ga 30427
Jerry:
Thanks for those kind words. And thanks for your service to our country.
Gris
P.S. At least dinosaurs make good fossil fuel.
I understand you are good friends with Dee and Bruce Stanfield. Dee and I are therapists for Bibb Co and also worked together when first starting out as therapists. Its been suggested that I invite you to a gathering/event we are having this Thursday at 3:00 at Northwoods Academy (next to Riverside Methodist Church). My husband and I began raising money amongst all our friends to buy another friend/co-worker a van for her and her special needs child. She is also actually a teacher of special needs children. We were hoping to raise at least 1/2 of the $7000 a good used van we had found cost and then we’d pay the remainder. At last count our total is at $12770.00. We are totally surprising her with a van with a lift and many other items (gift certificates, gas cards, diapers, formula, etc) We thought you might be interested in doing a story focusing on the generousity of our community even in the hard times we’re in. If you are coming come 5-10 min early as they are bringing her out at 3. Any questions call me 737-9735
gris@macon.com