By Gregory A. Weiss
George Henry Weiler III died suddenly and without warning from a massive heart attack playing tennis at the Bronxville (New York) Field Club in late May. George graduated from Ridgewood (New Jersey) High School and, after Yale, earned a JD from the University of Pennsylvania and completed a Rockefeller fellowship at Harvard. His early career was as a civil rights lawyer in Washington. He then moved to financial services in 1984 at Dillon Read and survived a multitude of mergers to end up in 2000 with UBS Wealth Management US as senior vice president, where he continued to work until his death. George was truly a “people person”—he loved meeting new people, was always “up” and always had a friendly word for everyone. He also loved being a Yale man. It was in his blood. His father was a winner of the Yale Medal. George was a regular at the monthly lunches at the Yale Club in New York, sang with the Yale Glee Club’s around-the-world tour, was an active member of the Yale Alumni Chorus, and went to the Yale Bowl for football games as often as anyone. Among his other passions was the Reformed Church of Bronxville. George’s survivors include his wife Mary Ann, his four children (two of whom are teenagers), and one grandchild. Your corresponding secretary and at least five other classmates attended George’s memorial service, including Cary Koplin, who did a terrific job as one of the key speakers.
On a more positive note we recently received the following e-mail from Sandy Shapleigh: “After settling in Holyoke, Massachusetts, in 2007 in so-called semi-retirement, I found that my previous economic development career in far-off places was not over. Short-term consulting work has kept me employed at least four months per year, of late including Sri Lanka (reintegration of the northern province following that country’s long civil war—and where we lived for five years in the 1980s), Zimbabwe (struggling to get restarted after the land grab changes—we lived there for two years in the ’90s in better times), and Palestine (a lot going on but everything hinging on the long-awaited and maybe impossible two-state solution). Otherwise my wife Cathy and I are fully engaged with first grandson Sam (daughter of Kerry Shapleigh and Joe Price, both Yale 2003), and our daughter Megan in Barcelona who will be married there next year. Final highlight: Two weeks on the Camino de Santiago last year; ready to go again if anyone out there wants to join up.”
We were quite pleased to receive an invitation to the 2013 State of the City of Lincoln, Nebraska, Message given on July 3 by Mayor Chris Beutler. Knowing Chris, we are sure he has things humming!