And after 40:
PGF 5
PGM 9
MGF 6
MGM 20
Voters: 40.
My mother’s parents were very different. My grandmother had a poker up her bum (I knew I got it from someone!). My grandfather was a sweet, funny man who treated his grandchildren like people. My sister and I loved spending time with him.
Unfortunately, I didn’t seem to learn very much from that example. But I put him down as most influential anyway.
Roddy
Both of my paternal grandparents died before I was born and my maternal grandfather died when I was two. So by default it is my maternal grandmother. She will be turning 90 this year and is as fiesty as ever.
We are alike in many ways. We both love to argue and are stubbern. I got to a point when my mom had to tell me I was not allowed to bring up anything political at all when my grandma is around.
My pawpaw, my mom’s father. He was a mean, hard-working man when I was a kid. I was terrified of him. When he got older he got softer and when my grandmother died when they were in their seventies he and I became very close. I tended him when he got sick with liver disease and grieved harder and longer with him than anyone in my family when he died.
I didn’t know until he passed how much alike we were. He had what they called back then “nervous breakdowns” and was hospitalized several times for them. He drank to settle his anxiety, whereas I eat. He ate too though, and he was quite overweight before he got sick. We also both had red hair. His was wavy, mine is curly.
He loved to laugh, loved Benny Hill and Hee Haw. While I loathe them both, I prefer comedy over any other entertainment. We both loved Johnny Cash and Hank Williams songs. He was a big reader. I think if we’d had the internet back then he’d have been interested in it.
When I was a kid he taught me to paint, and I was a commercial painter for several years. I think he would have loved that, and he wouldn’t have teased me for painting myself more than the walls because he came home like that all the time.
He was a good guy with a big heart but he didn’t let people in too easy and he worried all the time. I’m just like him.
I only ever knew my maternal grandmother, so it must be her.
MGF died when I was 15, after 16+ years of being a shell of himself in long-term care following several strokes.
PGM died when I was 5ish; she liked chocolates.
PGF died when my father was 12. He was an alcoholic.
Maternal Grandfather, but that was kind of a by default situation. Paternal grandmother died before I was born, maternal grandmother died when I was seven, paternal grandfather had so little to do with any of his six kids or many grandkids that I probably saw him all of ten times before he died when I was 23.
But anyway, all three of my maternal grandfather’s grandkids were very close to him. I may have been the closest because I was so much older than both of the boys.
Grandma raised me as much as Mom or Dad.
I miss her.
But you do realize if she had followed her own advice you wouldn’t exist right?
Just sayin…
Only my paternal grandmother lived in town. The rest live / lived thousands of miles away. Her influence was subtle but enormous, though they’ve all had some influence.
The only one now living, my maternal grandfather, is one of those people who just isn’t interested in his family. I always think it’s really sad that I have a 90-year-old grandfather who is healthy in mind and body and yet who doesn’t want to talk about his past, his family, his history, himself, or his views of the present world. And doesn’t want to hear about mine. What a waste. I gave up on him five years ago and just get the news from my mother. I don’t think he has noticed.
Well, *she *woulda been just as happy about that.
I only knew two of my grandparents, my paternal grandmother and my maternal grandfather . . . who were married to each other.
My maternal grandmother (who is still with us at 93 years old). I talked to her this evening 
My maternal grandmother as she is the only one of my grandparents alive and the only one to be alive when I was born.
After 65:
PGF 8
PGM 15
MGF 12
MGM 30
Voters: 65
My PGF was a good man, but he died when I was 13 so while I have fond memories of him, they are rather distant.
My MGF was a wonderful storyteller and IMHO the perfect grandfather.
My MGM was the sweetest woman I’ve ever known and IMHO the perfect grandmother.
However, I had to choose my PGM, because she came from a rich family, and had it not been for her unsolicited generosity, I would be far more broke than I am today.
My maternal grandfather was the family patriarch in more ways then one. He may have been the worlds greatest listener. Successful on many levels: business, charity/community, friends and most importantly -family.
That he was the longest lived of my grandparents has a small bit to do with it.
Crud. I mistakenly voted for my paternal grandfather instead of my maternal grandfather.
That sounds like an interesting story!
Yes it does. Do tell! 
My maternal grandparents. I never knew my dad’s parents, so …
My maternal grandmother’s mother was a missionary in western China beginning in the 1880’s … as was her husband.
My maternal grandfather’s father (or uncle, I’m not sure which) was also a missionary in India and then China.
Their religion did not directly pass down to me. I was raised atheist. But I married a Presbyterian and I now go to a Congregational Church.
The whole god/jesus stuff mystifies me, but it’ll all get sorted out in the mix!
It looks like we may make it to 100 voters (or more) so that the numbers will be easier to see directly when that point is reached. But as a snapshot at 76 Voters, looked at three different ways, consider:
Which Grandparent has been the biggest influence on you?
M - PGF 7 9.21%
M - PGM 14 18.42%
M - MGF 9 11.84%
M - MGM 15 19.74%
F - PGF 3 3.95%
F - PGM 3 3.95%
F - MGF 4 5.26%
F - MGM 21 27.63%
Voters: 76.
Men as a group
M - PGF 7 15.56%
M - PGM 14 31.11%
M - MGF 9 20.00%
M - MGM 15 33.33%
45
Women as a group
F - PGF 3 9.68%
F - PGM 3 9.68%
F - MGF 4 12.90%
F - MGM 21 67.74%
31
=====================
Genders combined
PGF 10 13.16%
PGM 17 22.37%
MGF 13 17.11%
MGM 36 47.37%
76
Comments and interpretations?
Any surprises to you personally?
Judging from the replies so far, it would appear that a goodly percentage of SDMB people have had very little influence from their grandparents, mostly because of their grandparents being absent due to death and other factors.