speaker at the 1984 Republican National Convention; during its evening session on August 20, 1984, he endorsed President Ronald Reagan for re-election. 2018 gubernatorial bid On January 5, 2017, Grier announced his intention to run for governor of California as a Republican in the 2018 California gubernatorial election. He ended his candidacy in July 2017. Community service Grier has also written a number of books, and now travels the United States as an inspirational speaker. He is a cofounder of American Neighborhood Enterprises, an organization that works to help disadvantaged city dwellers buy homes and receive vocational training. Grier was ordained a Protestant minister in 1983, and the next year he founded his nonprofit resource center for inner-city teens, developing spiritual and educational programs for disadvantaged youths. Grier is a prominent member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. He is also on the Milken Family Foundation board of trustees and serves as its program administrator of community affairs. He has been honored by Penn State as recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award in 1974, and the Alumni Fellow Award in 1991. He was named to the NCAA's "List of the 100 Most Influential Student-Athletes" published to commemorate the NCAA's 100th anniversary. In 1997, he was inducted into the New Jersey Sports Hall of Fame. In 2017, he was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame. Personal life Grier was well known in the 1970s for his hobbies of needlepoint and macrame. He authored Rosey Grier's Needlepoint for Men in 1973. Grier has a daughter from a previous relationship named Sherryl Brown-Tubbs. He later married Bernice Lewis, who had one child, Denise, whom he adopted before he and Lewis divorced. He then married Margie Grier and had a son, Roosevelt Kennedy Grier, in 1972. He and Margie divorced in 1978 and remarried in 1980. Margie Grier died on June 10, 2011. He married Wichita school teacher Cydnee Seyler on April 30, 2013. A nephew, Mike "Big Daddy" Grier, followed his uncle's career in sports when he enrolled as a student at Boston University, but he played ice hockey instead of football; he subsequently had a 14 year NHL playing career and became the league's first black general manager with the San Jose Sharks. He is the cousin of Pam Grier. Bibliography Rosey Grier's Needlepoint for Men (1973) Rosey, an Autobiography: The Gentle Giant (1986) Winning (1990) Shooting Star: Sometimes You Find