Nominations for the Grand Island Senior High School Hall of Honor are accepted throughout each year. The Hall of Honor Committee will review all submitted nominations and honor inductees every other year. We are excited to announce the Hall of Honor Banquet & Celebration will be held again on Tuesday, March 12, 2024.
The Hall of Honor, inaugurated in 1983, recognizes Grand Island Senior High School alumni who have made a significant and lasting contribution to the betterment of society. Nominees must have graduated more than 20 years ago from the high school.
C. Dean McGrath, Jr.
Class of 1971
Hall of Honor 2005
C. Dean McGrath, Jr. is a third generation graduate of Grand Island Senior High School – following in the footsteps of his father C. Dean McGrath, M.D., 1942 and grandfather W. D. McGrath, M.D., 1909. Mr. McGrath is also a graduate of Duke University (B.A. with Distinction in Economics, 1975); the University of Nebraska College of Law (J.D., 1978); and the National War College (1985).
Mr. McGrath’s career in public service began with a summer job with the U.S. Forest Service in Cortez, Colorado in 1971. In 1979, after graduating from law school, Mr. McGrath joined the United States Department of the Treasury as an Attorney Advisor (1979-1986). In 1981, he represented the United States as a Special Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Columbia. That same year he received the Treasury Department’s Award for Superior Performance.
In 1986, President Ronald Reagan appointed Mr. McGrath as Associate Counsel to the President. After three years as a lawyer to Presidents Reagan and Bush, Mr. McGrath served as Special Counsel, Department of Defense; Acting General Counsel, Deputy General Counsel and Associate General Counsel, U.S. Department of Transportation (1989-1991); and General Counsel, Peace Corps of the United States (1991-1992).
In 1992, Mr. McGrath was appointed by President George Bush as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Staff Secretary. He served from 1993 to 1996 as Senior Attorney for the American Automobile Manufacturers Association and on the Board of Directors, the Executive Committee and the Case Selection Committee of the Product Liability Advisory Council.
In 1996, Mr. McGrath returned to public service as the Chief of Staff and Chief Counsel to the Honorable Christopher Cox (U.S. House of Representatives, California). From 1998 to 1999, Mr. McGrath was the Staff Director of the U.S. House of Representatives, Select Committee on U.S. National Security and Military/Commercial Concerns with the People’s Republic of China.
In January 2001, Mr. McGrath returned to the White House for the third time as the Deputy Chief of Staff to Vice President Richard B. Cheney. Mr. McGrath also serves as a Member of President George W. Bush’s Management Council.
In addition, Mr. McGrath is an Adjunct Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center, where he teaches seminars on the “Constitutional Aspects of Foreign Affairs” and “Conservatism in Law in America,” and serves on the Board of Advisors of The Georgetown Journal of Law & Politics. Mr. McGrath’s publications in the Journal include “The Genius of the Constitution: The Preamble and the War on Terror” (Winter 2005).
