Thomas Henry George, known to all as Tom, passed away on May 27, 2026 in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, just three days after his 97th birthday.  A man of extraordinary intellect, warmth, and vitality, Tom lived a life marked by curiosity, adventure, and deep devotion to those he loved.

Born on May 24, 1929, in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania to Edwin Black George and Mary Louise Baker George.  Tom’s family moved back and forth between the New York, N.Y. area and the Washington, D.C. area as he was growing up, and he said, “I have the advantage of having  been in a different elementary school almost every year”.  From the 7th grade on he went to McDonogh, which was then a semi-military boarding school located in Maryland.  The headmaster, Major Lamborn, was an ex-World War I, Cavalry Major and the school kept 60 horses.  One sport which was offered in the fall, in the winter and in the spring was riding. Tom chose riding every fall, wrestling or swimming every winter and lacrosse in the spring. After graduating at the top of his class at McDonogh, Tom went to Amherst College in Massachusetts, where he graduated in 1951.  Tom’s time in the “calvary” at McDonogh inspired him to join the fencing squad at Amherst to fence saber, and the fencing coach also coached skiing, and persuaded him to take that up.  Meanwhile, Tom’s parents had bought a cottage on Nantucket Island, where he quickly learned to sail.  For the rest of his life, Tom’s leisure time passions were skiing in the winter and sailing in the summer.  Amherst College was an all-male institution, but the social life revolved around the two all-women’s colleges, Smith and Mount Holyoke, each less than 10 miles away.  The other great passion of Tom’s life, Barbara Pierpont Stickney, was at Smith College and so of course they met… at a beach party on Nantucket!  They both had summer jobs on the island, Tom teaching sailing and skippering for boat rentals and Barbara waitressing at a lobster restaurant, and Tom spotted her wearing her Smith College sweatshirt. “Summer Nights” led to a school year romance, and soon Tom and Barbara married and moved into an on-campus apartment in GI Village, “temporary” housing Amherst had erected to accommodate veterans returning on the GI Bill after WWII.  They were joined by their pet squirrel, Roger.  Barbara had picked up the orphaned baby squirrel when she walked to the courthouse to get their marriage license.  When she came back her mother exclaimed, “Oh Barbara, not another kitten!”.  Well, it wasn’t!   Tom’s original major was chemistry, but his love of mathematics drew him into physics, and he went on to earn his PhD in physics at Brown University, where they also welcomed their first child.  Tom and Barbara began practicing German at home when Tom applied for a Fulbright Fellowship to conduct post-doctoral research under Professor Hilsch, head of the third physics department at Göttingen Universität in Germany.  When this was awarded to him, the family of 3 set off by ship, travelling with their Willys Aero Ace in which they explored Europe during university holidays.   On their return Tom went to work for Union Carbide Corporation in Cleveland, OH as a research physicist using x-ray crystallography to study the structure of metals and alloys.  Ted, officially named Edwin Black George II after Tom’s father, joined the family.  Tom bought a historic house in Olmstead Falls, with cows in the field of a neighboring farm beyond the backyard and used his skills in building and woodworking to maintain and preserve the old house.  Saoirse came into the family while they lived in that house.  During this time Tom was tapped to work with a group exploring how to encourage researchers to pursue careers within the company and then moved to efforts to apply equal opportunity policies in scientific hires, thus gradually moving into more executive positions.  Then, Union Carbide moved him to an office in NY city, where he commuted from the suburbs by train and occasionally in the MG TD he had lovingly rebuilt (but sometimes if it stalled he had to leap out and use the crank to restart it!).  In the late 1960s Tom moved his family to a quaint New England style village on the edge of the suburbs on east side of Cleveland, where he worked for TRW, Inc.  At first, he continued to work on employment policy issues, then moving to the issues of applying the new OSHA policies to research facilities, but eventually Tom was tapped for his expertise in computers to help digitize the legal record keeping, while his abilities in mathematics and physics involved him in quality control efforts, and subsequently he became a recognized expert in Just-In-Time supply line logistics.  He earned an M.B.A. from Case Western University.  Whatever was needed, Tom was there with a special skillset!  He began travelling world-wide for TRW, giving in-house lectures and consulting with local executives.  After the Lockerbie bombing, TRW decided to base him in Europe to reduce trans-Atlantic flights, and he chose to work out of the headquarters in Köln (Cologne), Germany.  Having become “empty-nesters”, he and Barbara lived there until her death, when he retired.  Fluent in German with a good understanding of French, in retirement he consulted in technical translations.  He continued hitting the ski slopes into his early 90s.  An avid sailor, he captained and raced his beloved Shangri La, a Hunter 30, in the Chesapeake Bay through 2025.  He was a lifelong devotee of cabinetry and classical guitar, practicing both arts most of his life.  A dedicated member of the American Contract Bridge League, he earned many master points over decades of competitive play.  In the 1970s, he served as Scout Master of Troop 165 in Gates Mills, Ohio, shaping the character of young people in his community.  Most of all, those who knew Tom will remember his love and commitment as a parent and grandparent.

Tom was predeceased by his wife, Barbara Pierpont Stickney George; his parents, Edwin Black George and Mary Louise Baker George; his sister, Suki Hendrixson and his grandson, Hugh Dryden.

He was the beloved father of Emily Dryden, Edwin George (Annette) and Saoirse George (Ellen); grandfather of Jay, Pierce, Fiona, Claire, and Ian.  He is also survived by two great-grandchildren.

A memorial gathering is being planned for September.