George C. Kern Jr. ’47

George died Nov. 27, 2012, at his home in Manhattan. He had an outstanding career in the legal profession as a partner in the prestigious law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell.

George matriculated at Princeton in 1943 and entered the Navy V-12 program in 1944. He served as an ensign with the Pacific Fleet before returning to Princeton and graduating in 1947. After graduation he joined the U.S. administration in Germany (1947–1949), eventually becoming chief of U.S information for the State Department’s Heidelberg and Mannheim centers and subsequently deputy U.S. information officer in Berlin during the blockade.

Following his service in Germany, George attended Yale Law School and became associated with Sullivan & Cromwell, from which he retired in 1993. In the late 1970s he founded the firm’s mergers and acquisitions practice. Because George was at the center of so many big battles, he became the firm’s biggest moneymaker in the mid-’80s. Two of his most important cases were the merger of the Gulf Oil Co. with Chevron in 1984 and the acquisition of The Carnation Co. by Nestlé in 1985.

An opera buff, he built a personal collection of more than 200,000 record albums.

Joan, George’s wife of 42 years, died in 2005. He is survived by his daughter, Heath Kern Gibson, and a granddaughter.