Ken Gradon was involved in every Maccabiah Games from 1950 to 2001. He served as honorary president of Maccabi Europe for 17 years, its chairman for seven years. He was president of Maccabi Great Britain for 19 years, and later Honorary Life President.

Gradon was a founding member of the International Maccabiah Committee and Chairman of the IMC Sports Committee. At the time of his death, Gradon was Hon. Vice-President of Maccabi World Union.

A scion of a German rabbinic dynasty, Gradon left Berlin to study in England in 1935. At the outbreak of WWII, he changed his name (born: Kurt Gradenwitz), volunteered for the British army, and was among the first Allied troops to enter Berlin, where he was involved in liberating concentration camps. His parents died in the camps, but his brother and sister escaped to Palestine.

Gradon had the breadth of interests and character to span the full spectrum of Jewish life––from the most frum to the most secular. In addition to his role as an active Jewish sportsman, he was especially devoted to the development religious studies and facilities for Jewish youth, and housing for the elderly and needy.

With his brother-in-law, (IJSHOF honoree) Fred Worms, Gradon co-founded the B’nai B’rith Housing Society in 1966. He was a member of the executive of B’nai B’rith’s student service, Hillel, and house committee chairman of London’s Hillel House.
In 1977, Gradon facilitated the establishment of Kisharon School, an Orthodox sheltered school for Jewish children with special needs. In 1984. he was instrumental in reorganizing the finances and educational structure of the Jewish Secondary Schools Movement (Great Britain).