George Small ’43

George died at his home in Baltimore, on Sept. 16, 2002. He was 81.

A graduate of the Gilman School in 1939, he served in the Army during WWII. Following military service, George became president of PA & Small Co. in York, Pa., a family-owned wholesale food distributor.

In 1969, George inherited from his brother, Sam, the Mpala Ranch of some 50,000 acres in Kenya, home to an elephant herd and other wildlife. In 1989, he founded the Mpala Wildlife Foundation, then joined with Princeton, the Smithsonian, and the Kenya Wildlife Service to develop a world-renowned scientific research center on the ranch.

Geroge loved tennis, fishing, and canoeing; it was his practice to take a major canoe trip each summer, such as Sutton River to Hudson Bay, in Canada.

He made an immediate impact on all who knew him. Moose Copeland '74 termed him "one of the finest gentlemen I have ever known." Our classmate Sam Cook wrote, "I was close to George from the age of 12; a fine person in every way, and very generous to Princeton."

George left no immediate survivors. To those on the ranch, in Baltimore — indeed, around the world — we extend our deepest and most heartfelt sympathy.

The Class of 1943