Cliff Rodney Granberry passed away peacefully July 4, 2012.

Christian, family man, businessman, and a 50-year member of the Masonic Lodge, he was a positive influence on everyone he met.

Cliff was born June 1, 1916, in Celeste, a small, rural, north Texas town with a population of about 600. Cliff’s father, S.R. Granberry was a successful rancher and banker.

In 1939 as the U.S. emerged from the Great Depression, two significant events occurred in Cliff’s life. He married Mary Helen Puckett, also of Celeste; and he started a job with Lummus Cotton Gin Co.

At Lummus, he started out working in the warehouse of the Dallas office, sweeping floors and preparing shipments. In order to obtain the skills necessary to advance within the Lummus organization, he attended night school at The Draughns School of Business and at The Dale Carnegie Institute (taught by Dale Carnegie himself). Rising through the ranks at Lummus, by 1958 Cliff was based in Fresno, Calif., and had become the sales and operations manager for the western United States. He had established Lummus as the dominant competitor in the West.

With a strong desire to own his own business, Cliff moved the family back to Dallas, and established Allied Specialties Company, which later became Cliff Granberry Corporation. He traveled the cotton belt from California to the Carolinas selling innovative products that were designed to make cotton gins run more efficiently and safely. Some of the products that Cliff introduced to the cotton ginning industry were the Injecto-Flameout Fire Suppressor, The Spee-D-Flow Seed House, The Sensotron Early Warning Device, and the Cliff Granberry line of Moisture Monitoring products.

In 1961, Cliff established Cotton Gin Supply Co. in Phoenix, Ariz., which provided a full line of replacement and repair parts for cotton gins in the Arizona area. The company was the forerunner of HosePower USA, which is now the largest distributor of industrial and hydraulic hoses in the U.S.

In 1978, Cliff sold Cotton Gin Supply Company and Cliff Granberry Corporation to his children. He retired from day-to-day involvement in the ginning industry, but his remarkable energy and entrepreneurial spirit would not let him rest.

He soon moved to Granbury, which was named for Cliff’s distant relative, Confederate General Hiram Granberry, who died while fighting in the Civil War.

He began a long and prosperous period of real estate development. Over a period of 20 years, Cliff developed several of the finest retail properties in Granbury.

In 2009 Cliff and Mary Helen moved to Harrisonburg, Va., to be near their daughter, Carolyn Harvick, and her husband, BJ.

Cliff is survived by his wife of 73 years, Mary Helen; their three children, Carolyn Harvick, Clifford Rodney Granberry Jr, and James Samuel Granberry. Cliff and Mary Helen have also been blessed with seven grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. Twin sisters Lorraine Lovell and Lucille Gholston also survive him.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Sunnyside Communities Fellowship Fund, 600-L University Blvd., Harrisonburg, Va. 22801. This fund benefits patients in the nursing care wing of Sunnyside where Cliff spent his last months.

Services will be at Restland Cemetery in Dallas.