Professor Kevin Granata was a devoted professor, colleague and father. Kindness and unselfishness defined his life and characterized his actions through his final hours. According to a memoriam released by the college of engineering, Granata first and foremost protected his students on that fateful day by escorting them into his office before he attempted to locate and potentially stop the situation.
This was how Granata lived. A leader in biomechanics' research, he sat on numerous engineering science and mechanics committees, oversaw graduate students, taught undergraduate classes and still found time to share his life with his family.
The memoriam stated, "Professor Granta's greatest passion and pride was his family, especially his wife and children. He was also an athlete. He rowed crew at Purdue, participated in biathlons and triathlons and was an avid runner and cyclist. He loved coaching his sons' lacrosse teams."
"With so many research projects and graduate students, he still found time to spend with his family, and he coached his children in many sports and extracurricular activities. He was a wonderful family man. We will all miss him dearly," said professor Demetri Telionis in an Associate Press interview.
After joining the Tech community in 2003, he has been considered one of the rising faculty members in the engineering department. Specifically, Granata worked on movement dynamics in cerebral palsy as well as musculoskeletal movement, control of low-back pain and the technological development of legged walking robots.
Granata was an integral part of Tech's biomedical partnership with Wake Forest University, which has also stated its condolences and sadness for the loss of such a distinguished professor and friend.
According to the memoriam, Professor Granata was born and raised in Toledo, Ohio, and received undergraduate degrees from Ohio State University in electrical engineering and physics. He later earned a master's degree in physics from Purdue University. Thereafter, he worked in the Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland. He received his doctoral degree in biomedical engineering from Ohio State University and then worked in the Department of Orthopedics at the University of Virginia, where he was the director of the Gait Laboratory.
Granata is survived by his wife Linda, his two boys Alex and Eric and his daughter, Ellen. Granata stood out in his chosen academic field as well as a personal level as those that new him will never forget. In an interview with the Lafayette Journal & Courier, Sandy Formica, a graduate secretary in the Purdue physics department said, "You remember people like that because they stop in and say hello to you. That's just the type of person he was."
