Patrick McGrady came to aid of cancer patients

Patrick McGrady was a world traveler, linguist, bon vivant and best-selling author in 1980 — a man of accomplishment, creature comforts, many friends and a big family.

Then his father died from colon cancer, and that changed everything, his son Ian McGrady said.

"The only thing you need to know is that when his father died ... getting patients to the best doctor became his life, his religion, his passion and his own medicine for healing his heart. That's what you have to know," he said.

After helping thousands of cancer patients find proper care through an organization he founded called CANHELP, the Port Ludlow writer died Dec. 12 of complications after knee-replacement surgery. He was 71.

Mr. McGrady's sudden and sustained commitment to cancer care was perfectly consistent with his personality, those who knew him say. His Irish personality had big and expansive thirsts — for knowledge, great food and drink, interesting people, humor, love of family and better health care for cancer patients.

"He lived large in every way. He was warm and gregarious. He always picked up the tab. And he assembled this crazy, wonderful, genius, brilliant, colorful cadre of people around him," his daughter, Vanessa McGrady, said.

Mr. McGrady was born in Shelton, Mason County, in 1932 and attended a one-room schoolhouse in Lilliwaup, Mason County. He went to Yale University on a scholarship, where he discovered a facility for languages.

He became fluent in Russian and German, and then French after studying politics at the Sorbonne during his junior year.

He even studied Yiddish at Yale, telling his befuddled professor that he was taking the class because his family spoke it around the house, his brother Seamus McGrady said.

He earned an A in Yiddish, his brother said, and remained fluent throughout his life.

"He loved learning. It was his passion. He studied anything he could get his hands on," the brother said. His interests extended from politics to history to science, and a short time listening to a language was enough for Mr. McGrady to become conversant, he added.

He started his career writing for the Chicago Sun-Times, then moved on to The Associated Press and United Press International before landing in Moscow as bureau chief for Newsweek in the early 1960s.

He and his staff left the Soviet Union after the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

After that he picked up medical writing. He wrote several books, including "The Youth Doctors" and "The Love Doctors," and co-wrote with Nathan Pritikin "Pritikin Program for Diet and Exercise."

When his father, himself an editor for the American Cancer Society, was diagnosed with colon cancer, however, Mr. McGrady was appalled at the state of cancer care, Ian McGrady said.

After his father's death, Patrick McGrady moved back to Washington state in 1980, then traveled the world seeking out the best treatments and doctors, especially for patients deemed terminal.

"His business became finding treatments for cancer patients who were left for dead by the system," Vanessa McGrady said. He served on the board of the Northwest Oncology Foundation and was vice president of the American Aging Association.

Despite his accomplishments and outsized personality, Mr. McGrady appreciated small kindnesses, his longtime companion, Holly Redell, said.

"When you talked to him, he looked directly at you and you were the only person in the world he cared about at that moment. He had a way of making you feel important, which you couldn't help but feel in his presence anyway," Redell said.

Just moments before he died, Redell said, Mr. McGrady was making Yiddish jokes with his hospital roommate.

Besides Redell, daughter Vanessa of Seattle and son Ian of New York, Mr. McGrady is survived by son Ilya Andres Magnes of Copenhagen, Denmark; brothers Mike and Seamus McGrady of Lilliwaup; and former wives Liz Rosenbaum and Colleen Bennett-McGrady.

A memorial wake will be held at noon Saturday at the Lilliwaup Community Club. Donations may be made to the American Civil Liberties Union, Gilda's Club Seattle (a cancer support network) or the American Society of Journalists and Authors Writers Emergency Assistance Fund.

J. Patrick Coolican: 206-464-3315 or jcoolican@seattletimes.com