Obituary of George David Edwards

George David Edwards, Jr. passed away peacefully at home on June 8, 2023. George was born in 1932 in Rochester, Pennsylvania. He grew up in Beaver, PA, where he delivered the newspapers and qualified as an eagle scout. After graduating from Beaver High School, he was awarded a John McMullen scholarship to study electrical engineering at Cornell University. At Cornell he was elected to the engineering honor societies, Tau Beta Pi and Eta Kappa Nu . He also served as treasurer of Theta Xi fraternity. Following graduation he taught for a semester at Cornell prior to a two year tour of duty as a lieutenant with the Army Security Agency in Germany. Following his military service, he was employed by DuPont in the engineering department from 1957 to 1959. Then he attended graduate school at the University of Wisconsin, earning Master of Science degrees in . mathematics and in statistics. From 1964 to 1970 he was employed by McKinsey & Company in the New York office. In 1971 he established his own management consulting firm (1971-2001) specializing in financial institutions. JP Morgan and American Express were clients.

He was a bibliophile and a friend of libraries with a special interest in Edward Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. He was a member of the Grolier Club where he served as a trustee and as treasurer; as a program chairman he introduced the custom of curator’s chats for exhibitions and revived the tradition of bibliophilic tours for members; he was the editor of three books recording the Club’s travels abroad. In recognition of his contributions to the Grolier Club, he was made an Honorary Member in 2011.

He was a member of the Board of Governors of the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University for twenty years, serving as Chairman of the Finance Committee and as Chairman of the Associates. He gave the most valuable part of his Gibbon collection to the Cornell University Library where he served on the Library’s Advisory Council. He was also Chairman of the Advisory Board for the book arts program at Wells College and was a trustee of the College.

He served as treasurer and also as president of the Board of Trustees of the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church and was a trustee of the Episcopal School in NYC.

George came from a small town in western Pennsylvania, but considered New York City his home town. He and his beloved wife of 63 years, Gail, lived for over forty years on the Upper West Side where they raised their three children, David, Elizabeth, and Alexandra. They retired to Pound Ridge, Westchester County, New York.

A Memorial Service will be held on Wednesday, June 21, 2023 at Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City at 11:00 AM. In lieu of flowers, you may wish to remember George through a donation to Cornell University.