Henry Charles Grant

KJAZZ: http://www.jazzandblues.org/support/ways/

Union Rescue Mission: http://bit.ly/1guK19h

Henry C. Grant

March 10, 1920 - August 27, 2015

LOS ANGELES. Starting life in a rural Scottish

town near Aberdeen, Harry found himself growing

up amidst 2 sisters and a brother, and parents who

promoted lively political discourse in the community.

During WWII, his profession as blacksmith meant

he served locally in the Home Guard, where he met

a Land Girl at a dance. He sparked her curiosity

by sitting on the floor throughout their first dance.

As if this were not enough to ensure a future

engagement, he importuned the lovely Diana

Dawson with a barrage of typewritten letters from

a fictitious law firm pleading his case. By the time

they married in 1948, Harry had already earned

distinction as Student of the Year for Scotland, had

built a windmill that gave his family’s house the first

in the area to have electricity, and had blown up a

tree that fell through its roof.

While attending night school to become an

electronics engineer, Harry and Diana’s first child

was born, and shortly thereafter they took him to

Egypt where Harry got a job fixing radars on ships

transiting the Suez Canal. This marked the first of

their 3 year plans: experience the world by living in

new places, rather than have just a brief holiday.

Harry also perfected speaking without a Scottish

accent.

Toronto marked the next of the 3 year plans,

where he worked on the Canadian DEW Line

radar defense network. He built a Heathkit radio

where, along with colossal home-built speakers, the

growing family gathered to listen to radio shows.

He had at one time considered a career as a

professional musician, and the Grant household

was treated with lively Sunday nights, Harry playing

guitar with a jazz combo in the living room.

Harry joined a semi-conductor business in Los

Angeles. He’d bring home pioneering electronics,

comparing a pea-sized transistor with its Heathkit

vacuum tube counterpart, holding up a postage

stamp sized object, “This is a radio.”

The 3 year plan extended to 5, then it was time

to return home. But three years of English weather

drove him back to sunny Los Angeles where he

and Diana made a permanent home and shored

up the family with additional offspring. A tennis

friend mentioned he owned an apartment. Briefly

unemployed, Harry saw a future of income beyond

retirement and bought his first apartment building.

Harry and Diana accumulated lifelong

friendships, including fondness towards friends

of their children. The Grants melded with Special

Friends the Contreras family, held wild parties

leading their East Blvd friends crawling over

sofas and under tables in exhilarated maraca shaking,

clave-clacking samba lines, became

lifelong members of the homespun art group, the

Mudslingers.

The call of England returned, but instead of

giving up Los Angeles they bought a cottage in

Tewkesbury, and spent summer months gaining

a new group of affectionate fans of Harry’s

guitar-playing parties. Harry and Diana also took

advantage of summer college classes, relishing

Scottish and English history and literature. Around

this time Harry decided to learn Italian, so off he

and Diana went for three months in Italy.

Diana died in 2002. Although Harry never quite

got his footing afterwards he fortunately never lost

his cheerful spirit and people-charming demeanor.

There were more summers in Tewkesbury,

Mudslinger gatherings, Contreras Christmases,

and a continued interest in his health with daily

exercise, carrot juicing and vitamin supplements,

as well as family trips to Guadalajara, Greece, New

Orleans, San Miguel de Allende and Belize.

Children, in order of appearance: Nik (Jackie)

Grant, Roger (Mary Lou) Grant, The Baroness

(Mark) McQueen, Elektra Grant. Grandchild:

Andrew (Vanessa) Grant. Great Grandchild:

Everett Grant

Harry’s Memorial will be at the Culver City Gates,

Kingsley&Gates on September 26th at 2pm.