George died Oct. 2, 2017, of stage-four lung cancer, a diagnosis he had received in early February 2017. He chose to forgo chemotherapy and had a very good last chapter, enjoying friends and family through September. He passed quietly and without pain.

George came to Princeton from Episcopal High School in Savannah, Ga., and majored in modern languages. After Princeton, he pursued comparative-languages study at Harvard, and was then drafted into the Army, serving in Germany. At the end of his service he remained in Germany to learn film and photography, a career he enjoyed and in which he excelled.

Based in Boston, his studio created anthropological films from the Arctic to East Africa and scientific photography for the faculties of Harvard and MIT. He sold the business in 1978 and then worked for Digital Equipment Corp. producing educational videos, one of which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes.

In retirement, he wrote, “I am trying to reinvent myself as a novelist … an experience both exciting and humbling … finding myself, at age 70, no more than a clumsy beginner.”

He is survived by his wife, Marsha; son Jonathan ’98 and his wife, Carolyn Gratzer Cope ’98; and two granddaughters.

Class Year: 
Undergraduate Class of 1954