Obituary of Darryl Lucien Grenier

Darryl Lucien Grenier, 79, of Simpsonville, SC, passed away on Good Friday, April 7, 2023. Darryl was born in Nova Scotia, Canada, and immigrated to Brookline, Massachusetts, where he grew up playing baseball, ice hockey, and getting into all sorts of mischief. After earning the first-ever Bachelor of Science in Biology degree from Belmont Abbey College in Charlotte, NC, he married Renate Dell and raised a family with her. Darryl’s professional career was focused on teaching students with behavioral and developmental challenges, and he took great pride in helping and encouraging those students to achieve scholastic excellence. For over forty years, he taught at a variety of public and private schools to include Hillcrest High School, Camperdown Academy, and Bryson Center (formally Bryson High School), where he was one of the first Caucasian teachers to serve after Greenville County Schools were integrated in 1970. Outside the classroom, Darryl was actively involved in promoting ice hockey in the Upstate for most of his adult life. In the late-1970s, he was instrumental in creating the Greenville Hockey Club and served as its first president and long-time youth hockey coach. Well before the Greenville County Parks and Recreation Commission built The Pavilion ice skating rink in Taylors, SC, the Greenville Hockey Club played on a reduced-size ice rink in Textile Hall. Darryl remained active in the local competitive ice hockey scene well into his retirement years, and he sacrificed most of his original teeth and a significant amount of blood during his competitive playing days. The suturing abilities of several hockey-playing physicians and other medical professionals were undoubtedly improved by the willingness of Darryl and his teammates to sacrifice their bodies for science. When he wasn’t committing penalties during late-night scrimmages, he could usually be found teaching young hockey players how to take a slapshot, raising money to purchase hockey equipment for economically disadvantaged players, and training aspiring Zamboni drivers to resurface the ice at Textile Hall, and in later years, The Pavilion. After Darryl hung up his ice skates, he enjoyed solving all kinds of word puzzles and working in his garden. Darryl is survived by Renate Grenier, his wife of 55 years; sister, Lynn Jennings (Bob) of Idaho; four children, Stephen Grenier (Katherine) of Charleston, SC; Cheryl Grenier of Simpsonville, SC; Jacqueline Osborne (Taft) of Fountain Inn, SC; Eric Grenier (Liesl) of North Bethesda, MD; and seven grandchildren, Ian, Spencer, Matthew, Samuel, Sophia, Camden, and Caroline.