H. Grady Black Jr.

Family-Placed Death Notice

H. Grady Black, Jr. a fourth-generation Atlantan and an eighth-generation Georgian, died at home on September 11, 2005. He was born on November 7, 1924 to Eloise Allen Black and Henry Grady Black, Sr. He leaves behind his wife, Elizabeth Buckley Black, and his four children, Laura Black Inman and her husband Frank, Henry Grady Black, III and his wife Susan, Allen Coffin Black, Elizabeth Black Simons and her husband Frampton, and seven grandchildren, Davis, Lucy, and Allen Inman, Gabrielle Black, and Frampton, Henry and Schuyler Simons. He attended Washington Seminary, 10th Street School, R.L. Hope Elementary, Marist High, Georgia Tech and the University of Georgia in Athens, where he spent several of the best years of his life. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy on November 7, 1942, after which he spent 3 and a half years in the Amphibious Forces of the South Pacific. After leaving the Navy, he entered the investment banking industry where he worked for 47 years, both in Atlanta and New York City. He was associated with Courts & Co., Robinson-Humphrey, Tucker-Anthony and Interstate Securities, among others. After retirement in 1992, he was associated in the real estate development business with William Barton George, Jr. and William Izlar, III and their firm, Huntington Investments Associates. Mr. Black was a life member of the Piedmont Driving Club. He was an avid stock market analyst, bridge player and reader, a consummate traveler, and a follower of local and national politics. He enjoyed all spectator sports, particularly those which involved the Georgia Bulldogs and Atlanta Braves. Throughout his life, he contributed time, money and ideas to a number of Atlanta's charities and political figures. In the 1960's, he ran for the State Senate and State House of Representatives, once as a Rebublican and once as a Democrat, losing both times. Above all else, he enjoyed spending time with his family, children, grandchildren and many friends. He was preceded in death by his mother and father, and his two brothers, James Allen Black and Robert Michael Black. His great-grandfather was the famed orator and newspaper editor Henry W. Grady. His grandfathers were Eugene R. Black, who was the chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank under Franklin Roosevelt and James P. Allen, who had a long-time, fashionable ladies ready-to-wear store on the corner of Peachtree and Cain Street. One of Mr. Black's last request was to include in his funeral notice the following: "I may be poor, ignorant, diseased, and be-vermined, may have come here in a two wheeled cart with a mule in a rope harness, and sat on the bottom because I was too lazy to arrange a seat; no doubt I'm an utterly useless Corn-cracker-but Sir, I am a Georgian!" In lieu of flowers, it is requested that contributions in his memory be made to the Henry W. Grady Foundation, c/o Grady Hospital, 80 Jesse Hill Jr. Dr. SE, Atlanta, GA 30303 or to Doctors Without Borders, 6 East 39th St. New York, N.Y. 10016. The family will receive friends at Spring Hill on Wednesday, September 14, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. Funeral services will be held at the Cathedral of Christ the King on Thursday, September 15 at 11:00 a.m. interment will be at Westview Cemetery with a luncheon to follow the graveside service at the Simons' home, 97 Brighton Rd. Arrangements by H.M. Patterson & Son, Spring Hill Chapel, 1020 Spring St. Atlanta, GA 30309.