Albert Weston Grant was born to a pioneering family on April 14, 1856 at East Benton, Maine; He grew up at Stevens Point, Wis., where he won a competitive appointment to the Naval Academy. He graduated on June 20, 1877. He did service in Pensacola, Lackawanna, Alliance, Passaic, and Iroquois, and he served ashore at the Norfolk Navy Yard, received torpedo training, and briefly serving at the Naval War College.
Albert became the commandant of the Philadelphia Navy Yard on March 21, 1910 and simultaneously took command of the 4th Naval District. He became head of the Atlantic Reserve Fleet in 1912. Command of the new battleship Texas came in 1913 and command of Submarine Flotilla, Atlantic Fleet, followed in 1915.
In the summer of 1917, three months after the United States entered World War I he took over Battleship Force 1, with additional duty in command of Squadron 2 and Division 4. With this position it gave him the rank of vice admiral. In December 1918 he was given command of the Atlantic Fleet. In the spring of 1919 he became commandant of the Washington Navy Yard and superintendent of the Naval Gun Factory.
Vice Admiral Grant retired on 6 April 1920 and passed away peacefully on September 30, 1930 in Philadelphia.
USS Albert W. Grant (DD-649) was laid down on December 30, 1942 at Charleston, S.C., by the Charleston Navy Yard; It launched on May 29,1943; It was sponsored by granddaughter of Admiral Grant Miss Nell Preston Grant,; and commissioned on November 24,1943.
