Introduction
John Carroll Grimek (June 17, 1910 – November 20, 1998) was an American bodybuilder and weightlifter active in the 1930s and 1940s. Throughout his career he carried the nicknames "The Monarch of Muscledom" and "The Glow."
Life
Grimek was born in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, the son of Slovak immigrants George and Maria Grimek, peasants from the village Ústie nad Oravou in western Slovakia.
Besides his bodybuilding exploits, Grimek also represented the United States in weightlifting at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin.
In 1949, he won his last contest, the AAU Mr. USA, against a field that included Steve Reeves, Clarence Ross, George Eiferman, and Armand Tanny. Grimek retired from bodybuilding undefeated.
Grimek was featured in many bodybuilding articles and magazines, as well as being photographed in bodybuilding magazines. Despite his retirement, he continued serious training for many years, and was still able to perform squats with over 400 pounds for repetitions in his late 60s. Grimek died on November 20, 1998 in York, Pennsylvania at the age of 88.
Posthumous tributes
He was inducted into the IFBB Hall of Fame in 1999.
He is depicted as part of a mural located at 37 West Philadelphia Street in York, Pennsylvania. This mural was finished in 2000.