Antiques collector Grant Albert Oakes Sr died January 15 after a long battle with cancer. He was 71.

Born June 6, 1938, in Warren, Ohio, Grant was raised there. His grandfather, father and uncle started Oakes Foundry in the late 1920s. In 1963, Grant began his own business in Cortland. An entrepreneur with vision, he developed a unique process to retool the immense rollers used in the steel and aluminum rolling industry. Thus, began Service Guide, Inc.

He eventually acquired contracts with all the leading steel rolling factories throughout the United States and Europe in response to the quality of the fine precision work of this difficult application. Grant’s factory employed a large labor force of skilled technicians from the immediate area, which is located in the heartland of the steel industry known as “the Golden Triangle.” He kept the plant going in spite of the bad economic climate and the manufacturing markets shifting to Asia.

Grant started collecting antiques as a teenager. He and his mother and grandmother frequented the surrounding areas for fine curly maple furniture and early lighting. He was a distinguished member of the Rush Light Club. Self-taught and gifted with an intuitive sense of the best, his taste quickly developed toward a keen appreciation and eye for sophisticated American rococo furniture. With the aid of Eileen and Richard Dubrow, he assembled one of the finest collections of Belter furniture extant today. His collection also includes rare examples of Alexander Roux, Thomas Brooks, J&JW Meeks, RJ Horner and Herter Brothers. The collection is illustrated and discussed in the Dubrows’ book American Furniture Of The Nineteenth Century.

Grant was a well-known figure at the Brimfield (Mass.) Antiques Market, where he would search the fields for solar, sinumbra and argand lighting and fine period shades. His collection of Nineteenth Century oil lighting is unparalleled. His interest and knowledge of bronze casting led him to seek out the finest examples of American and English lighting devices with a focus on important regency figural lamps and chandeliers.

Grant was a perfectionist. Every piece was studied, researched and painstakingly restored. His lighting collection is the nucleus of Nineteenth Century Elegant Lighting by Gerald T. Gowitt.

Along with the collections of furniture, glass and lighting, Grant was an avid antique car enthusiast, a field of interest that began in high school. He acquired rare examples of early Fords, roadsters and the sports cars of the 1960s. Each was meticulously restored, and all have won awards at the national car shows.

He supported local charities through contributions to worthy causes. His community achievements include the creation of the yacht club at Mosquito Lake, a project of 18 years.

Plans are underway to establish a permanent private museum of his collection of Nineteenth Century decorative arts.

Grant will be remembered and missed by all who new him. He was honest, down to earth, fair and straightforward to suppliers and collectors alike.

He was a one-of-a-kind man who knew what he was and what the world around him should be.

He and his loving wife, Mary Oakes, have (combined) four sons †Grant, Gregory, Scott and Jason †and two daughters †Debra and Kelli; 11 granddaughters †Teresa, Anna Marie, Elaina, Ashley, Gina Alyssa Alexis, Morgan, Natalie, Tyler and Samantha †and two grandsons, Andrew and Tegun.

Memorial donations may be sent to the Grant A. Oakes Memorial Fund, Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, 490 North High Street, Cortland, OH 44410.