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Former Marine, cop, defense contractor now serves through massage

Scott Swanson

Grover Hubbard’s past might be considered out of the ordinary.

So is his present, as a former police officer now working as a successful massage therapist.

The 45-year-old runs Body Dynamics Massage Therapy in Sweet Home and Springfield.

This road had some bumps for Hubbard, who grew up in Springfield, after moving there at age 8 from Northern California.

As a youngster, he played “all the sports.”

“I lived to play sports,” he said. “Now I’m so beat up, I can’t do it anymore.”

He joined the U.S. Marines after graduating from high school, serving for four years as a military policeman at Camp Pendleton in California and then in Okinawa, Japan. He met his wife, Nancy, during that time.

Nancy Hubbard dreamed of entering law enforcement, but “she was too short to be an MP,” Grover Hubbard said. “She went into the administrative part. Admin stuff.”

She’d been in the Marines for four years when he joined, he said, and realized her aspirations after being discharged some months after he left the service. She’s worked nearly 23 years in law enforcement now, including the last 19 for the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, where she’s a detective.

Her vocation was one of the things that eventually brought the couple to Sweet Home.

Grover Hubbard first became aware of the city while traveling through to go wakeboarding at Green Peter, he said. He also competed as an amateur bodybuilder.

Hubbard had moved on to the Eugene Police Department, serving from 1996 to 2004, then quit to become a private security contractor in Baghdad, Iraq. He was there for 2½ years when he was hurt – in circumstances he says he can’t divulge for security clearance reasons, but were related to “combat.”

“I injured my back pretty bad,” he said. “I had to have surgery.”

He went back to Iraq for another 2½ years, and while he was overseas, Nancy bought their house in Sweet Home.

“My wife didn’t want to live in Marion County, live where she worked,” Hubbard said, noting that it could be awkward to stand in a line at the grocery store and spot someone “I’d just arrested two days ago.”

When Hubbard returned to the States in 2010, he took a year off to determine his next move. He decided to become a massage therapist. He completed the program at Lane Community College, graduating seven years ago at the top of his class.

“That surprised many people,” he said of his new career, “but I am happy I made the change.

“I know what it feels like to hurt.”

From athletics and bodybuilding, he had also gained a thorough knowledge of human anatomy.

He got into law enforcement to “help people,” and his new career allows him to do that, too.

“This is a job where I can still help people and nobody tries to shoot me or blow me up or anything,” he said.

And he’s busy.

“There’s a big demand,” he said. “I’m booked solid, weeks out.”

Occasionally, he still gets massages himself, exchanging therapy treatments with a friend, but not often enough.

“I have a friend I trade with, but we’re both so busy that we can’t do it,” he said. “Between my office in Sweet Home and Springfield, I’m very, very busy.”

In addition to therapy, Hubbard has been active in pit bull rescue efforts over the years through Luvable Dog Rescue in Eugene.

“I don’t have time any more,” he said, but he still has an older “cranky” rescued pit bull at home.

“I’ve rescued quite a few,” Hubbard said. “We’re down to one now. We used to have six. We’re probably not going to do any more until after he passes away.”

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