Jon Grissom (Earth-5875)

Rear Admiral Jon Grissom was a legendary officer of the UNSC Navy who fought during the Interplanetary War  Following the breakthrough discovery of slipstream space and the invention of the Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine in 2191, Grissom was chosen as the commanding officer of the Odyssey, the first ship to leave the Sol system and colonize Reach, in the Epsilon Eridani system.

Biography
After the discovery of slipstream space in 2291 by Tobias Fleming Shaw and Wallace Fujikawa, and the subsequent invention of the Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine, the UEG and the UNSC prepared to have humanity travel and colonize planets outside of the Sol system.

Jon Grissom, then a hero of the Interplanetary War, was selected to be the first human to leave Sol and test slipspace travel. In 2198, piloting his frigate, the UNSC Nylund, he was able to reach Epsilon Eridani in two weeks, as intended, becoming the first human to leave Sol. Six months later, Grissom was given command of the colony ship Odyssey, and hundreds of UNSC personnel and civilian colonists were selected from all the continents of Earth to be a part of his ship.

In 2212, Jon and the Odyssey reached Reach, which proceeded to be colonized and terraformed by the UEG. Once they landed, Grissom was hailed as a hero, and adopted by the masses as one of the greatest pioneers in human space exploration.

Publicly, Grissom chose to stay away from the media and the military, quietly retiring in 2257 and becoming a recluse on Elysium, refusing to give any interviews or have any contact with UEG media.

He died peacefully in his sleep on July 19th, 2289.