Grimm descends from an American line of master craftsman woodworkers who built mahogany ballrooms and paneled books rooms for the Gold Coast mansions of the Vanderbilts and Morgans. For his own pleasure, Grimm’s father built a wooden racing schooner and a speedboat in the late 1920’s.

But the Great Depression and World War ll changed things. The Grimm family moved to a tract house in Hicksville and his father sacrificed a number of his creative directions in order to provide for his family, eventually working for The Grumman Aircraft & Engineering Corp., a leading 20th century producer of military and civilian aircraft. Grumman was the chief contractor for the Apollo Lunar Module which first landed on the moon; his father, a master tool and die maker who had studied physics at Pratt Institute, worked on that project.

“I think of what my father did, working behind a 16-foot chain link fence in great secrecy, on the Lunar Module, which required 1/10,000ths of an inch tolerances in manufacturing precision, as nanotechnology by hand - it was the height of craftsmanship of the day,” said Grimm. “He taught me that I could build or do anything.”

While his family went often to Jones Beach, and his father took young Calvin clamming and fishing as schedule allowed, as soon as he was mature enough to travel on his own, Grimm began what has been a lifelong exploration of America’s most pristine wilderness areas. He took up horseback riding in the early 1970’s, eventually following a girlfriend to Wyoming where he worked for the National Outdoor Leadership School as a certified wilderness educator and a horse packer re-supplying backpacker expeditions. The painter still owns a horse, “Journey,” but the 21-year-old gelding currently lives at a friend’s ranch in Colorado; Grimm visits often.

Grimm is widely known for a pair of 6 ½’ x 10’ murals created for what is today called AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants Major League Baseball Franchise, in the South Beach neighborhood of the Golden Gate city.