Fred B. Grant, 88, former EPA manager

In 1994, Fred Grant gathered his family in Cherry Hill to mark the 100th anniversary of the year his parents began homesteading in western Oklahoma.

After writing about those days for the occasion, Mr. Grant "started realizing he could remember more details of his childhood and that it would be important" for the family, his son, John, said.

In 2001, Mr. Grant self-published his autobiography,

A Backward Glance,

the first of four such books.

On Nov. 18, Fred B. Grant, 88, a former manager in the regional headquarters of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Philadelphia, died of melanoma at his son's home in Marietta, Ga. He had moved there in September after living for 37 years in Cherry Hill.

"They weren't right in the Dust Bowl" part of Oklahoma, John Grant said of his parents' early years, but until moving to the college town of Norman in 1934, "it was still tough times, trying to make a living in dry-land farming."

Born on his family farm near Rocky, Okla. - where the 2000 census counted only 174 residents - Mr. Grant graduated from Norman (Okla.) High School.

After serving in the Army Air Corps at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio, he earned a degree in civil engineering from the University of Oklahoma in 1949 and his professional engineering certificate from the state of Kentucky in 1955.

From 1952 to 1967, he was a consulting engineer with Watkins & Associates in Lexington, Ky., and thereafter for the forerunner of the EPA in Charlottesville, Va.

In 1971, Mr. Grant joined the regional office of the EPA in Philadelphia as a civil engineer and, when he retired in 1984, was chief of its program-management branch.

The EPA awarded him its silver medal and special-service and quality-increase awards.

During the early years of his retirement, he was a volunteer at Emmanuel Baptist Church and chairman of the pastoral care committee at West Jersey Hospital.

Besides his autobiography, Mr. Grant self-published

World War II as Told by a Few Who Were There

in 2005, a collection of poems selected by his wife in 2006, and

Prairie Pioneer,

a novel about Oklahoma homesteaders this year.

Mr. Grant came late to writing but long was influenced by the guide to clear writing,

The Elements of Style

by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White.

"He gave it to my brother-in-law when he married my sister," Mr. Grant's son said. "He told him it would help his career more than anything else."

Besides his son, Mr. Grant is survived by his wife of 65 years, Betty; daughters Jane Kennedy and Laura Alteversn; four grandchildren; seven great-grandchildren; and several nieces and nephews.

A graveside service was Nov. 20 in Berea, Ky., where Mr. Grant's wife's family is buried.