William R. Grant was a native of Winchester and graduate from the University of Kentucky in 1965, where he was editor-in-chief of The Kentucky Kernel and the first person to receive a master’s degree in mass communications. He had an early career in print journalism as a writer for The Courier-Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, Detroit Free Press and The Lexington Leader. He was a Neiman Fellow at Harvard from 1979 to 1980. He entered broadcast journalism in 1983. He is a major contributor to public television programming. He was director of science, natural history, and features program for WNET Public Television as well as executive producer and executive in charge of production. He was a producer of The American President and Stephen Hawking’s Universe, among other major public television programs. He was executive editor for Nova, and managing editor for award-winning series, Frontline. He won major national awards including five from the National Council for the Advancement of Education Writing, two Charles Stewart Mott Education Writing Awards, American Bar Association Silver Gavel, two Peabody awards and six Emmys. He was author of numerous publications and papers on a variety of subjects. He died in 2016.