PA's Senior DeMolays - Glenn Grell

Continuing our look at some of Pennsylvania's more well known Senior DeMolays, we come to Bro. Glen R. Grell, who serves in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives for the 87th District, which covers Cumberland County. Much of the information below comes from Rep. Grell's website.

Rep. Glen R. Grell was first elected in 2004 to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives for the 87th District in Cumberland County.  He is currently serving his fifth, two-year term in the state House.

A long-time civic and community leader, Grell is a lifelong resident of Cumberland County.  The 87th Legislative District is comprised of the townships of East Pennsboro, Hampden and Silver Spring, the Borough of Camp Hill, and the second voting precinct of Wormleysburg Borough, pending completion of the 2012 legislative redistricting process.

During his tenure in the House of Representatives, Grell has been the principal sponsor or House floor leader on legislation on subjects ranging from eminent domain; public pension reform; the 2012 Justice Reinvestment Initiative for corrections reform; revisions to the Uniform Commercial Code on secured transactions; a recodification of the Notary Public Law; tort reform and other subjects.  

Prior to being elected to the House, Grell was a practicing attorney in central Pennsylvania since earning his law degree from the Dickinson School of Law in 1981. He was formerly with the law firm of Klett, Lieber, Rooney & Schorling, having previously practiced in the areas of municipal and administrative law, government affairs, real estate law and finance, and public procurement.

As a highly-regarded real estate attorney, Grell was appointed in 2004 to serve on the Joint State Government Commission’s Advisory Committee on Real Property Law, in the first phase of its mission to advise the General Assembly on the codification of real estate laws in Pennsylvania.  During the 2005-06 legislative session, Grell was the prime House sponsor of legislation to protect private property rights and reform the Pennsylvania Eminent Domain Code, which became Acts 34 and 35 of 2006. 

Grell served as Deputy General Counsel to Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge from 1995 to 2000. In that capacity, he had primary responsibility for Commonwealth contracting, review and approval of Commonwealth contracts, deeds, leases, inter-agency agreements, and other obligations.  He has also been a member of the Republican National Lawyers Association, Pennsylvania State Association of Township Solicitors, the Urban Land Institute, the West Shore Chamber of Commerce, the Harrisburg Regional Chamber of Commerce, Greater Harrisburg Association of Realtors, and Home Builders Association of Metropolitan Harrisburg.  Grell is also a graduate of Leadership Harrisburg Area.

Grell has been active politically at the local, statewide and national level for more than 25 years. He has served as an elected committeeman in Hampden Township, as deputy chairman and vice chairman of the Cumberland County Republican Committee, as county coordinator and regional field director for Gov. Tom Ridge’s gubernatorial campaign, as Pennsylvania co-chairman of Lawyers for Bush-Cheney, as a volunteer for the 2000 Republican National Convention, County Co-Chairman for Romney/Ryan 2012 and has been active in many other local and regional political campaigns.  

Grell is a 1974 graduate of Cumberland Valley High School and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from The Johns Hopkins University in 1978, as well as his J.D. from Dickinson Law School in 1981.  He and his wife, the former Elaine Sanzotto, reside in Hampden Township.  They have two children: Cory, PMC and Senior DeMolay himself, a graduate of Pennsylvania State University, and Alyssa, a student at Millersville University.

His civic activities include serving on the Shippensburg University Council of Trustees since 1995; serving on the Board of the Pennsylvania Masonic Youth Foundation and as chairman of the Foundation’s Educational Endowment Fund Scholarship Committee; prior service as director of the Cumberland Valley Eagle Foundation from 2002-10.  He has also served as chairman of a Fund Distribution Panel of the United Way of the Capital Region and was a member of the Board of Directors of Domestic Violence Services of Cumberland and Perry Counties from 2006-12.  He is also an honorary member of the board of New Birth of Freedom Council, Boy Scouts of America, Hampden Township Volunteer Fire Company #30, the Mechanicsburg Sportsmen’s Club, and a member of the Central Pennsylvania College President’s Circle.