Born Nathan Alter Zepelovitch (later changed to Zepell) January 6, 1915 in Riga, Latvia during World War I, during a time of famine when most pregnant women either had a miscarriage or died during child birth, with a low survival rate for babies that were born. Nathan was born prematurely and the doctor believed that Nathan would be lucky to live three weeks. Nathan was given the middle name Alter, which means "older" in Yiddish and true to his name he survived to live longer.

Nathan grew up during the Russian Revolution. At this time the Russian Provisional Government decreed that all valuables, primarily silver and gold, had to be turned over to the Government for the benefit of the revolutionary war. To enforce this decree, if during a house search they found valuables not turned over voluntarily, the head of the household would be shot and killed. Nathan's mother did not want to give up her precious silver Shabbat candle-holders, so she hid them at the bottom of a basket of linens. One evening two Cossacks armed with rifles and bayonets came to their home to search for valuables. When asked if they had any valuables, Nathan's father said "no." While one Cossack searched the house the other held Nathan's father against the wall with his bayonet against his chest. The other very large Cossack started searching the linen basket, which was next to 2.5 year old Nathan's playpen, with his large rear end in little Nathan's face. Nathan shouted in his native Yiddish, "Oh, what a tokus!" ~ and Nathan's parents started laughing. The Cossack asked why they were laughing and wanted to know what Nathan said. So his father explained that he was referring to his comrade's rear-end. The Cossack holding Nathan's father then laughed and told his comrade that they should go, since the family probably didn't have anything of value. He then came over to little Nathan and gave him a piece of chocolate, which Nathan had never had before, and said, "Good Boy." So that's how little Nathan saved his father's life.

Nathan grew up in a religious Jewish family. They would go to the synagogue three times a day, every day, to pray. He didn't need a prayer book since he knew everything by heart. Between services they would study the Talmud. After Latvian Independence from the Russians in 1917, Jews could attend a Hebrew school. There he studied Russian, German and Latvian. Nathan first became interested in pens at the age of 13 when he received a Pelikan fountain pen for his Bar Mitzvah. Nathan was always curious about technology and would take things apart to see how they worked. He realized that the fountain pen had many draw backs - it leaked, the ink didn't last very long, and it took awhile for the ink to dry on paper. He thought that there had to be a better way to write and he began thinking about how to make a better pen.

There was a lot of anti-Semitism in Latvia.  Jewish children were often beaten up at school and called “Christ killers.” One-time Nathan was beaten senseless at school and was hospitalized for two weeks before he got his memory back.  He was told to be quite about what happened, since two other boys were killed the same day he was beaten.

When the Great Depression hit Latvia in 1932, Nathan's parents told him they could no longer afford to feed him. So at the age of 17 he had to find work so he could feed himself. Even though he had been studying electro-mechanical engineering at Riga University, there were no opportunities for work anywhere. He even offered to work 10 hours for a meal and still no one would hire him. One day while walking home, he saw in a furniture shop window cabinet knobs from Germany for sale for 12 Lats each (about $2.40), which was the equivalent of buying food for about two weeks. As he walked away he had a debate with himself, which he refers to as the "3 Nathans" - the Strong Nathan, the Weak Nathan, and the Middle Nathan who has to decide which Nathan to listen to. The Strong Nathan thought he was talented enough to go into cabinet knob manufacturing. The Weak Nathan didn't think it was possible since he didn't have any raw materials or manufacturing equipment. However, the Strong Nathan was convinced he could get scrap material from the galalith (a synthetic plastic made from casein and formaldehyde) manufacturer and use a friend's shop equipment when they were not using it. The Middle Nathan thought it was worth a try to see if he could make and sell cabinet knobs to survive. Nathan did get free scraps of the plastic material and made arrangements to use a friend's shop at night. After working day and night for three days, Nathan had made 120 cabinet door knobs, which he packaged in old shoe boxes. To his surprise, the shopkeeper offered him 2 Lats for each cabinet knob. The 240 Lats he received from his cabinet knobs was enough for Nathan to live well for a year and start his own furniture hardware manufacturing business.

Nathan was a young entrepreneur and successfully built up his furniture hardware manufacturing factory, selling his own design of cabinet knobs for 40 Lats each. At the time, Nathan was also engaged to get married so life for Nathan was very good. Following the non-aggression pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union (Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact) in 1940, the Soviets annexed Latvia and nationalized all Latvian businesses. The Russians considered business and factory owners "exploiters" and would send them and their families to Siberia. When they came to Nathan's factory he had to wait outside while the Russians met with his 60 factory workers. When the Russians came out of the meeting, they informed Nathan that since his workers considered him a good boss he could stay on as the manager of his factory. This situation came to an end when the Nazis invaded Latvia in 1941.