Chicago producer and educator Nathaniel “Nate” Grant Jr. was remembered Tuesday as a jazz enthusiast, dedicated family man and trailblazer in the city’s film and television industry for his work in showcasing African American culture through film.

Grant died Jan. 6 at age 87, according to his family. His wife, Joyce Grant, died Jan. 18 at age 84. Funeral services for the couple were held Monday at First Methodist Mansfield church in Mansfield, Texas, with a virtual option available for those unable to attend in person.

Nate Grant’s daughter, Laurens Grant, remembers her father as a “larger than life individual.”

“He just embraced life to the fullest and recommended we do the same,” she said.

Nate Grant was born in Cincinnati and, at age 10 moved with his family to Chicago after a brief stay in Gary, Indiana. While attending Crane Technical High School, he was selected as one of a few African American youths to participate in a summer program organized by former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt in New York, according to Laurens Grant. It was during this experience Grant developed a deep curiosity for travel, she recalled.

At age 18, Grant traveled to Mexico by bus, and soon after, enlisted in the Army and was stationed in Germany.

His passion for travel inspired Laurens to seek her own adventures, she said. Though she was eager to explore the world at a much younger age than her father had hoped, she joked during her parents’ funeral service, “I’m like, ‘Well, Dad, I’ve gotta go. I’m going to see the world.’

“As terrified as he was, he was always very supportive,” she said.

Nate Grant graduated from Southern Illinois University, where he studied sculptors and developed a deep admiration for painters such as Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Paul Klee.

Art became a central part of his home, with the walls adorned by favorite works.

He painted that of artists he admired and of our childhood photos. So it’s almost like not an inch of wall was available,” Laurens Grant said.

Laurens said her father “was very intentional” in that he wanted his children to know there was a world outside their home.

In 1956, Grant joined the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity’s Theta chapter, which eventually led him to meet his wife, Joyce, a member of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority. The two met at a fraternity dance, according to Laurens.

The couple moved their family to Homewood, where they lived for close to 30 years before moving to Olympia Fields, Laurens said.

For awhile, Nate Grant worked in corporate America and the nonprofit sector, including roles as a buyer at Sears, Roebuck & Co., and later at The Woodlawn Organization, a nonprofit focused on addressing inequalities in housing, education, healthcare and other areas for Chicago families.

Later, he launched his own production company, Lake Shore Film and Television Productions based in Chicago.

At his funeral, members of his fraternity honored Grant with a special tribute and a video that chronicled much of his life. In the video, Grant shared he founded his own company to create commercials.

“I remember distinctly, my office was at Lake Pointe Tower in Chicago, and I was driving to meet a potential client,” he recalled in the video. “I hadn’t even named the company yet.”

When the client asked the name of his company, Nate looked out the window at the lakefront and spontaneously replied, “Lake Shore.”

Laures Grant said when her father was starting out in the 1970s and ‘80s, she thinks of him as a “pioneering African American figure” at a time when the field was mostly dominated by white men, with productions that catered to a white audience.

“The film world was pretty insular, so he had to make his own way,” she said.

While her father did a range of commercials and performances in an effort to secure clients, she said he always focused on trying to shine a light on African American culture, which “sometimes was appreciated and sometimes was not,” Laurens said.

As a producer, Laurens said her father worked with a number of prominent athletes, performers, actors, singers and Chicago officials including Stevie Wonder, Michael Jordan, Jim Brown, Philip Michael Thomas of Miami Vice fame, Fred “The Hammer” Williamson, Jerry Butler, Mercedes Ellington, Oscar Brown Jr., Gwendolyn Brooks, Dr. Margaret Burroughs, Jesse Jackson, former Mayor Harold Washington and activist Stokely Carmichael.

One of her father’s achievements, Laurens shared, was his documentary “What Shall I Tell My Children Who Are Black,” inspired by Dr. Margaret Burroughs’ book. The film won Best Film/Video by a Black filmmaker at the Black International Cinema Berlin Film Awards in 2009.

Nate Grant directed the 2019 film “Joseph Oliver Brown,” based on the biblical book Job, now available on Amazon Prime. He also directed the indie comedy “Butterscotch and Chocolate” and played a pivotal role in bringing the drama “Up Against The Wall” to Homewood, helping to showcase local talent and stories, Laurens said.

Laurens said her father worked with Mercedes Ellington, Duke Ellington’s granddaughter, on a performance in Chicago featuring Ellington’s “sacred concerts,” which he considered his most important work. The performance was praised for blending jazz with church music, she said.

In 1991, Laurens said her father started a career in teaching at Chicago State University, which became a passion.

Up until his passing, Laurens said her father would say he never retired, and was always seeking his next project.

While Grants children describe him as having a big personality and the first to crack a joke, one of his sons, Nathan, said he embodies more characteristics of his mom, who displayed a “quiet confidence.”

“She was his foundation,” he said.

Grant’s other son, Nelson, said over time he realized how much of his parents are in him.

“Even up through this time, they found a way to continue to teach me personally, in the the ideas of commitment, family values, sort of an unwavering love, not only for life, but for each other and and a belief in God,” Nelson shared at the funeral. “I am so ever grateful that even through this particular event, I’m still learning from them, even though they can’t speak,”

Laurens, holding back tears, shared with family and friends she wished she had him a little longer.

“Everyone talks about Marvel comics, like to me, my dad was my superhero,” Laurens told the Southtown.

smoilanen@chicagotribune .com