Samuel K. George III ’37

ORNITHOLOGIST AND PUCKISH, avid Princetonian, though graduating from Franklin and Marshall in 1939, Sam George died Sept. 4, 1991, when he fell off a ladder and broke his neck, never regaining consciousness.

Sam came to Princeton from Gilman, where he was on the news board, debating panel, and swimming team. In 1936 he discovered, on Funk Island of Newfoundland, the last rookery of the great auk, extinct since 1844, from which he reconstructed a complete skeleton. During WWII he became a pilot for Pan American Africa Ltd., hauling gasoline and ammunition for our troops in India, Persia, and Africa. In 1945 he was an offduty crew member of the last flight of the Pan American China Clipper and survived the crash. In 1946 he started his career in textiles, selling yarns for Latta Currier Co. and U.S. Rubber. He later became sales manager of textiles for Uniroyal in New York. Sam and his wife lived in Stony Brook, L.I., for 25 years.

Sam retired in 1985 to Moss Creek, Hilton Head, S.C., "watching birds both feathered and human on golf courses," including the mating of two rare Mississippi kites, and surviving his first builder absconding with his money in 1985. He once wrote, "It has been and shall remain a wonderful world in which to live, with two exceptions: (1) the Russians and (2) the politicians!" He did live to see his predictions, in the 50th Yearbook, as to Russia come true, with her citizens "released from the tyranny under which they live."

Our deepest condolences go to his widow, Peggy, whim he married in 1945 on Valentine's day, his birthday.

The Class of 1937