Obituary: James W. Grady Jr.

James W. Grady Jr.

Having lived on Boca Grande for more than 35 years, and as a “year-rounder” for the past 25 years, Mr. Grady was actively involved in the life of the island.  He was a board member for the Gasparilla Island Water Authority, the Johann Fust Community Library, the Boca Grande Art Alliance and the Gasparilla Island Bridge Authority. He was also a member of the Boca Grande Men’s Club, the Live Poets Society, the Lemon Bay Golf Club and the Boca Grande Club.

Mr. Grady was born in New Haven, Conn. in 1924 and graduated from Yale University as part of the war class of 1945. He served as an ensign in the U.S. Navy during WWII. He then attended Harvard Law School, earning an LL.B. in 1952.  

While at law school, he also met his future wife, Joan O’Neill, who was attending Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. They married in 1954.

After spending a year in London as an attorney with the Department of the Navy, Mr. Grady embarked on a career as a corporate attorney. He served as corporate counsel with a number of Fortune 500 companies, including AT&T, The Associates, CIT, J.P. Stevens & Co. and Merrill Lynch & Company, where he was senior vice president and general counsel and sat on the company’s board of directors.  

He retired as head of the corporate law department of the law firm Cummings & Lockwood, Stamford, Conn.  He also served as chairman of the American Bar Association’s subcommittee on corporate law.

Mr. Grady is survived by his children: Debra Grady of Princeton, N.J.; Barbara Grady and David Dugan of Saunderstown, R.I.; Jeffrey Grady and Julia Harrison of Wilton, Conn.; and Bruce Grady of Brisbane, Australia. He is also survived by seven grandchildren.  

He was predeceased by a daughter, Susan Grady, and his wife of 50 years, Joan O’Neill Grady.

A funeral mass was held in Darien, Conn.

In lieu of flowers, donations in the memory of James Grady are requested to be sent to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, 200 Connecticut Ave., Norwalk, CT 06854, (203) 854-0658, jdrf.org/fairfieldcounty.