Roll Call Tribute

(Posted on) The Battalion (on) September 5, 2016

Anton Gridnev
Aug. 19, 1997 — Aug. 20, 2016

A loyal friend who found the fun in the ordinary

Posted: Monday, September 5, 2016 11:21 pm | Updated: 11:42 pm, Mon Sep 5, 2016.
By Katy Stapp

Those who knew Anton Gridnev knew it was impossible not to smile after talking to him.

Anton was the kind of person who could make his own fun out of any situation, added his own personal flair to everything he did and most importantly, was always there for his friends when they needed him.

Jordan, one of Anton’s fraternity brothers, said it was impossible not to be happy around him.

“He was definitely the guy that put a smile on everybody’s face. It was impossible to have a conversation with him and not smirk,” Jordan said. “In some way or the other, either his mannerisms or the lyrics he would quote out of nowhere, or just a casual conversation.”

Jack, one of Anton’s fraternity brothers, said one of Anton’s best traits was that he could find the fun in an ordinary situation.

“We would always go out and do things together and our whole thing when we’d go out together would be, ‘Don’t try and find where the fun is, don’t try to find where everyone else is having fun, just make it yourself,’” Jack said. “We would do that every weekend; it was a blast.”

One of Anton’s favorite hobbies was fixing up cars, Jack said.

“He traded cars all of high school. He would trade cars for a slightly better, but still pretty bad car,” Jack said. “He cherished every car, though. He was really into fixing cars — that was one of his big hobbies. He redid the shocks on his Miata himself.”

When he wasn’t fixing up a car, Anton was making his own music.

“We were all really into music. [Anton] showed me a lot of stuff and I showed him a lot of stuff,” Jack said. “We would have late night rap battles in the theatre room, and we had a sub — probably a 20-inch sub — in this theatre room that would shake the walls, and Anton would lay down some verse and I’d be like, ‘Anton, that’s garbage, but I like it.’”

To his pledge brothers, Anton was the epitome of brotherhood.

“People will talk about [brotherhood] when they join a fraternity, but Anton was actually that,” said Nate, one of Anton’s fraternity brothers. “I got to live with him for a little over a month over the summer, and as soon as Jack got off work and everyone was back home for the evening hanging out enjoying each other’s company, Anton just really brought us all together.”

Joey, Anton’s fraternity brother, said Anton was a good spirit who didn’t take life too seriously.

“Your pledge brothers are supposed to be the closest brothers you have, and I could see how all of them cherished Anton for being the kind of good spirit he was,” Joey said. “At times of seriousness you could never count on Anton to take it too seriously because he was just a mellow guy that didn’t let things trouble him or bother him.”

Joey said Anton inspired his friends to not be afraid to be weird.

“He was the kind of person who could take a normal situation and put his own stamp on it,” Joey said. “He would inspire others to try to be as weird as he was and give everyone their own sense of originality.”

Emily Pfeiffer, Anton’s Fish Camp DG mom, said one of her favorite things about Anton was how fiercely devoted he was to the people in his life. She said that devotion showed at a DG hangout at IHOP, when Anton walked through the rain to meet his Fish Camp friends.

“Sure enough, Anton arrived about 45 minutes later smiling and drenched from the rain,” Pfeiffer said. “He had walked all the way to IHOP from his event just to spend an hour with our DG. That’s something I will always remember and admire about Anton. I feel lucky to have known that smile.”

Jack said despite Anton’s happy-go-lucky nature, the one thing he never failed to take seriously was being there for his friends when they needed him.

“Make no mistake, no matter how carefree he was, if we came to him with a problem, he was always willing to sit down and listen and provide advice,” Jack said. “We would talk about our next four years, what we’re doing after college and give each other advice and just listen to each other.”

Joey said while talking about Anton with one of his friends, his friend showed him a quote that Joey thought perfectly described the kind of person Anton was.

“The quote is, ‘There he goes, one of God’s own prototypes, a high-powered mutant of some kind never even considered for mass reproduction. Too weird to live, and too weird to die,’” Joey said. “It’s hard to put Anton into words, but I thought that did a pretty good job.”

Some last names have been omitted from this article. Additionally, his family requested that no photo be included with the article.
____________________________________________________________________________
Obituary not found.