GEORGE HAMBRECHT

1945 - 2022

HAMBRECHT--George Andrew. George Andrew Hambrecht, 77, died tragically in Big Sur, California, on December 5, 2022. The cause of death was a broken neck and cardiac arrest after a fall. George, a lifelong New Yorker, had traveled to California to visit family and friends. George Hambrecht was born in New York City, the son of William Matthew Hambrecht and Kathleen Sheehan. When George was young the family moved up the Hudson River valley, settling first in Pine Plains and Stanfordville, New York, and later, Lakeville, Connecticut. As a day student, George attended nearby Millbrook School, where he was a popular student- athlete, graduating in 1963, and later a loyal and supportive alumnus for nearly sixty years. He then went on to Yale, graduating in 1967. At Yale he was a member of the Fence Club and a Latin American Studies major. George lived in Berkeley College at Yale and wound up rooming with a group of eleven others for three years. He remained a generous and lifelong friend with his former roommates. At Yale he was a well-liked classmate because of his quick wit, warm and inclusive nature, and outgoing personality. Following graduation he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to Brazil, studying the development banking system and its relationship to housing. During his Fulbright year, he and one of his college roommates traveled all around South America from the Amazon jungle to the bottom of Chile. On their very modest Fulbright stipend, most of their travel was via bus or train. Upon returning to the US, George enrolled at the MIT Sloan School of Management, earning a Master of Science. In 1970 George began his career in finance as a management consultant with Cresap, McCormick & Paget. In 1970, he became one of the original members of A. G. Becker's Institutional Funds Evaluation Service in 1973. In this capacity George consulted with more than thirty institutional investors on questions of investment performance and portfolio structure. In 1976, he founded Syrus Associates, Inc., a consulting firm that specialized in solving the investment management and business problems of money managers. From 1976 to 1994, Syrus Associates worked with more than 180 money management firms worldwide and was a leading authority on the introduction of innovative investment services as well as the growth of the asset management business. He then founded Barlow Partners, a very successful fund of funds, and, until his recent retirement, served as its President and CEO for many years. George was a brilliant businessman and investor. George was published in the Journal of Portfolio Management and the Investment Management Review on the subjects of strategic asset allocation and business strategy, and was a frequent guest speaker at Institutional Investor's Chief Investment Officers Roundtable, the Financial Analysts Federation, Institute for International Research, Investment Management Institute, and numerous private functions. George was a Gentleman in every sense of the word: well spoken, well read, trim and fit, immaculately dressed. But, more importantly, George was a truly Gentle Man. He was kind, thoughtful and respectful to everyone who crossed his path, from CEOs and ambassadors to the people who tended his immaculate gardens at his summer home in Sagaponack. In the city, he was a member of the Union Club, the Links Club, and the Yale Club. From an early age, George loved being in Europe, especially France and Italy. With a Millbrook classmate, he spent a summer traveling Europe on $7 per day. In later years, he actively pursued his passion for wine and food through regular trips to France with friends and family, visiting the vineyards and great restaurants of Burgundy and the Rhone Valley. International travel was also an integral aspect of his wonderful marriage to art historian Andrea Henderson Fahnestock, with whom he had a magical wedding on the shores of Lake Garda surrounded by family and close friends in 2006. They traveled often all over Italy, to Paris, and other parts of France, and regularly spent the month of February on the Caribbean island of Mustique. Most recently, George and Andrea came to love Nova Scotia and built a home there on the Atlantic coast. The rugged Canadian ocean setting served as a perfect counterpoint to their home in Sagaponack, near the beaches of the Hamptons. In a way, it was symbolic of the rich and varied manner in which George and Andrea lived their lives together. In addition to Andrea, George is survived by his sister, Margaret M.H. Douglas- Hamilton of Lakeville, CT, his daughter Amanda, a surgeon in Los Angeles, and his son, Elliot, an investment professional in New York, the children of his first marriage to Patricia G. Hambrecht. At George's request, there will be no funeral or memorial service at this time. The Housing Rights Initiative in New York was an organization George believed in deeply. Friends wishing to honor his memory with a gift are invited to make a donation to that organization.