June 14, 2014
REST IN PEACE
Died at home in South Portland on June 14, 2014. George was born in Washington, DC in 1930. His father was Gregory, an immigrant from Belarus. George was educated at St. Joseph's Home and School, Gonzaga High School, Georgetown University and the University of Louvain in Belgium; where he was ordained a Catholic priest in 1956. While serving as a parish priest George earned additional degrees in canon law and psychology at Catholic University. Partially suspended from the ministry at the height of a controversy over birth control and papal authority in 1968 he resigned in 1970, worked five years in the federal government and then left with his wife Elli Landreau and infant daughter Elena to open Pilgrim's Inn on Deer Isle, Maine. At age 54 George knew the joy of a reunion with his mother, Ruth, from whom he had been separated for 52 years. Through the 1980's he and Elli were innkeepers at Goose Cove lodge on Deer Isle, where Elli pre-deceased him in 1990. In 1992 he sold Goose Cove Lodge after donating 48 of its oceanfront acres to the Nature Conservancy. He entered a second happy marriage with Linden Thigpen. In addition to writing stories and volunteer work at a soup kitchen, a jail, an alcohol rehabilitation center and his parish Church, George worked at the Catholic marriage tribunal in Portland from 1994 until shortly before his death. In lieu of flowers George requested that donations to any one of his favorite charities - Amnesty International, Oxfam America or the Union of Concerned Scientists. A memorial service with reception to follow will be held at St. Bartholomew's Church, 8 Two Lights Road, Cape Elizabeth, Maine on June 23, 2014 at 11 a.m.
George joined CORPUS in 1971