Grant was the intellectual heir of work performed by John Charles Lounsbury Fish who published Engineering Economics: First Principles in 1923, providing the critical bridge between Grant and the pioneering effort of Arthur M. Wellington in his engineering economics work of the 1870s.
Joseph Juran said that Grant was a "quiet doer who didn't receive enough credit for what he did" and did much to advance the field of quality to what it was in the middle of the 20th century.
"[6] Initial reviews of his book noted that Grant's work addressed "... the difficulties in reducing costs and income in different periods to a comparable basis-difficulties which are too commonly neglected by economists.
"[6] Grant succeeded in making economics "realistic,... an unusually good combination of text and case material.
[9] Grant noted in his preface to the 2nd edition that his book emphasized two points as its core themes: One reviewer of this 2nd edition noted that Grant's work was important and represented a specialized analytical approach to address the special problem of choosing alternatives.
[11] In 1982, the Accounting Historians Journal in an article on the historical development of traditional net present value (NPV) method with the equivalent annual cost (EAC) methods noted that the role that Grant's book on engineering economy played in the development of discounted cash flow techniques.
[16] Crucially, Grant noted that in such business decision-making, all relevant differences in terms of cost are future ones as past events cannot be "changed by a decision made today.
[16] While one reviewer stated that "Mr. Grant has written a fine introduction to conventional accounting and cost principles for "non-accountants ..."[15] another criticized Grant's use of "... accounting-cycle illustrations in so many chapters as focal points for introducing basic techniques ..." because it made for a difficult presentation for the students.
"[14] In summary, the book was criticized as a "...condensation rather than a distillation of basic accounting and cost accounting principles and techniques ... (and) ... the use of long involved problems to illustrate fundamental principles combine to make the book an inefficient teaching and learning tool.
[18][19] [20] Grant is interred at Sunset Hills Cemetery Memorials in Bozeman, Gallatin County, Montana, USA.
[19] His work on statistical quality control was an integral part of the effort to improve production in industrial plants during World War II.