Class of 1949

George Grisdale, Ph. D.

Award Winning School Counselor

Created Oakland County Academy for Counselor In-service

Executive Director of the SE Michigan Tennis Association

Inducted into Royal Oak High School Hall of Fame, 2014

George Grisdale graduated from Royal Oak High School in 1949. As a student, George was on the basketball team. Now it just happened that the basketball coach was also the tennis coach who needed players in the spring. The coach recruited George to play tennis, and as they say, the rest is history. George began a life long devotion to the game. He participated on the high school tennis team which took top honors in the second annual South Oakland County tennis tournament. He then went on to what is now Eastern Michigan University to play tennis and earn his degree in business administration and business education.

While teaching at Oak Park High School and coaching tennis, Mr. Grisdale earned a master’s degree in counseling from the University of Michigan. And at the age of 40 he put into practice the idea of life long learning by earning his Ph.D. in educational guidance and counseling from the University of Michigan.

He then left his position in Oak Park and took a position with the Oakland Intermediate School District. It was there that he established an “academy” to provide professional development for school counselors. Dr. Grisdale also introduced county school personnel to computer assisted programs to build schedules, issue transcripts, and keep attendance. He served as president of the Oakland Area Counselors Association, the Association for Measurement and Evaluation and the Michigan Personnel and Guidance Association. Dr. Grisdale also served on many national committees, and in 1998 he was awarded the Terry Hood Lifetime Service Award for his contributions to the counseling professions.

In 1991 George retired from Oakland Schools and became the executive director of the Southeastern Michigan Tennis Association. George has devoted many hours as an executive and as a volunteer to promote the game of tennis and to share his love for the game. He encourages youth and seniors to play and enjoy the game. George has been a volunteer at national, sectional and district tennis tournaments for over 20 years. He has manned the US Open Membership Booth in Flushing Meadows for over 15 years. Recently he was given the Mel Bergman Award by the Midwest Section of the United States Tennis Association. This award recognizes his “continuous and distinguished service as well as his unselfish and dedicated manner”.