Nathan Ramis, 94, father of director Harold Ramis
Matthew Kruk
Director's dad owned grocery store
'He was the most charming, easygoing, funniest, generous person anyone
knew,' son says
November 26, 2009
BY MITCH DUDEK Staff Reporter/mdu...@suntimes.com
Nathan Ramis, a Chicago grocer turned scrap-metal dealer, kept people
laughing all the time.
"He joked right to the end," said his son, comedic film director Harold
Ramis. "A doctor asked him: 'If your heart stops, do you want CPR?' and
he responded "Why not! It's free, isn't it?' "
Mr. Ramis, 94, died Tuesday after a fall at his Northbrook home.
He was born and raised on the West Side.
Mr. Ramis ran Ace Food & Liquor Mart at Lake and Hoyne for years before
moving the store and his family to Rogers Park in 1955.
"The people in the neighborhood called him Mr. Ace," his son said. "I
actually sold a pilot idea to NBC once called 'Mr. Ace' It was about a
Jewish family-owned grocery store on the West Side in the 1950s, but we
never got it off the ground."
To kill downtime at the grocery store, Mr. Ramis bet on sports.
"He'd bet a buck on every single pro football, baseball and basketball
game every day," his son said.
Unable to compete with big supermarkets, Mr. Ramis sold the grocery
store in the 1960s and got into the scrap-metal business before moving
to Northbrook.
"My dad pointed me toward good comedy. . . . He certified the good TV:
Jackie Gleason, Rodney Dangerfield, the Marx Brothers," Harold Ramis
said.
"He was immensely proud, almost insanely proud of what I did. The movie
stuff just knocked him out," said Harold Ramis, whose films include
"Stripes," "Ghostbusters" and "Caddyshack."
Ramis said his father didn't graduate from high school.
"His family was poor," he said. "He had to work. So he joined President
[Franklin] Roosevelt's New Deal Civilian Conservation Corps and lived
and worked in national parks."
During World War II, Mr. Ramis worked in an assembly plant that made the
nose section for B-29 bombers.
Mr. Ramis had been healthy for years.
"He's never been sick," his son said. "Never went to doctors. Never took
medication -- and lived very independently until the end. He never used
a walker even.
"He was the most charming, easygoing, funniest, generous person anyone
knew. He was very laid-back, never yelled or got angry, and was an avid
reader. He read three novels a week and both Chicago papers every day.
"But he'd been saying for a while, 'It won't be long now.' He sort of
knew he was entering some last phase of his life."
Mr. Ramis also is survived by another son, Steven; three grandchildren,
and great-grandchildren. His wife, Ruth, died in 2001.
Services will be at 10 a.m. Friday at the Weinstein Funeral Home North
Shore Chapel, 111 Skokie Blvd., Wilmette.