Ian Grad

Ian Grad passed away on Tuesday, July 30, 2019 at the age of 93. A life-long New Yorker, he was the son of Henry Grad and Anna Katz. He was the captain of the tennis team at Boys High School, class of 1943, and was voted the most all-around guy—combination of best athlete with highest average. He was also the captain of his college tennis team at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He graduated from RPI with a degree in mechanical engineering, doing four years of college work in three years while he was in the Naval ROTC program during WWII. He was a naval officer and served on a minesweeper in NY harbor, on a Canadian corvette during a cruise to Guantanamo Bay in the summer of 1944 where they hit a hurricane off the coast of Cape Hatteras—while he was on watch in the crow’s nest!—and on a captured Italian ocean liner converted to a troop transport ship taking home soldiers from Guam in 1946. As a navy reserve officer, he was recalled to duty during the Korean War to witness H-bomb tests in the Pacific, but managed to get released in time to avoid being dosed with high amounts of radiation! In late 1946, he entered the growing field of air conditioning as a consulting engineer, starting with Broadway theaters and movie houses in Times Square (he saw The Red Shoes 7 times), then moving on to the Brooks Brothers flagship store on Madison Avenue, banks, hospitals and schools. He did some work with Philip Johnson, then the big ones with I.M. Pei—The National Gallery of Art East Wing in Washington, the Jacob Javits Convention Center in NY, The Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and then non-Pei jobs like the United Airlines Terminal at O’Hare Airport in Chicago, the Shah of Iran’s new palace (in 1977—pre-Revolution) and various Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy and Victoria’s Secret stores around the country. He worked until he was 80!

An avid skier in the 1950s until he broke his leg, he switched to golf as his major sport after his tennis playing days were over. In the 1970s, he took up jogging. Rounding out his sports, he played for years on the Syska & Hennessy softball team and bowling team, helping them win a championship at the Madison Square Garden bowling alley, once rolling a 256 high game. He coached Little League baseball, as well.

A jazz fan, he took up the guitar while in the navy, later taking lessons with well known jazz guitar instructors Rector Bailey (who played on some early R&B records) and Hy White (who played with Woody Herman). He was also an excellent dancer—especially Latin dances such as the rhumba, mambo, and merengue. Along with his wife, Janice, they were always the best couple on the dance floor at any wedding or bar mitzvah. His daughter, Joy, became a swing dancer, no doubt due to Ian’s love of swinging music and dancing to it. He attended jazz concerts and night clubs and saw many of the jazz greats, usually with his son, Doug.

His lasting legacy may be as an avid reader. It was his paperback copies of Frederick Forsythe’s Day of the Jackal and The Odessa File that Doug found on the shelves that were instrumental in his going into the publishing business—first editing and now agenting mysteries and thrillers. Doug loved sharing my authors’ new books with his father and getting his feedback. The Kindle Ian received for his 88th birthday was, according to him, “the best gift I ever got him,” because now he could read more books without overflowing the shelves. The thriller and mystery community has lost one of its best customers!

Surviving Ian are his children, Doug and Joy, Doug’s wife Kim, and his grandchildren, Amanda and Harry.

In lieu of flowers the family requests donations made to the following link.

https://www.arthritis.org/giving/honor-memorial.php?utm_source=arthritis.org&utm_medium=donate-dropdown&utm_campaign=organic