George Wolfenden Sr.

WOLFENDEN, George Buchanan Sr., the founding headmaster of Tampa Preparatory School, died peacefully in a hot tub in Duxbury, Mass., April 1, 2005. The cause of death was respiratory depression. He was born June 9, 1925, in Indiana, Pa. He attended The Fessenden School, Phillips Exeter and Haverford College. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II in Newfoundland, Canada. He married Eleanor Houck of Brampton, Canada, and had three children. He worked in his family wholesale grocery business founded by his grandfather, George T. Buchanan, for whom he was named. He was stationed with the U.S. Army in Japan during the Korean conflict. In 1964, he worked with the Presbyterian church at the Interchurch Center in New York City, where he managed the acquisition and disposition of overseas properties. He married Barbara Kirk in 1966 and had a daughter. At the age of 40, he resumed his education at Haverford College, graduating with a B.A. in history in 1968. He got his master's degree from Br own University. He taught history at the Milton Academy and was a housemaster of Wolcott House. He was recruited by a Milton partner to help start a new preparatory school in Tampa. In 1973, thanks to his endless zeal and charismatic enthusiasm, the school opened with 40 students. Three years later, the school was fully accredited, achieved with an enrollment of 260. He gave the school its motto, "A Higher Purpose Than the Self." In 1989, he married Carol Lanford, M.D., and moved to Duxbury. He was a lifelong voracious reader and an avid skier, tennis player and golfer. He is survived by his wife; his brother, Richard Of Fort Lauderdale; his children, George B. Wolfenden Jr., John H. Wolfenden, Elaine W. Cockroft and Linda L. Wolfenden; and six grandchildren. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in his name to Tampa Preparatory School in Tampa, Haverford College in Pennsylvania or to the Friends Committee on National Legislation in Washington, D.C.