George Cowles

1934 - 2025

George Welsh Cowles passed away peacefully on August 12, 2025 in the San Francisco Bay Area, one week short of his 91st birthday. Born in 1934 to Catherine Welsh Cowles Birdsall and Daniel Finch Cowles, and raised by his mother and beloved stepfather, Stephen Taber Birdsall in Glens Falls, N.Y., George will be remembered as kind, dependable and dignified, a dapper connoisseur of madras shorts, quick with a pun or dad joke right to the end. The Sunday New York Times crossword puzzle had nothing on him, and he was helping finish it the weekend before he passed away.

George moved to Manhattan after college, where he met Marion Struppe, of Brooklyn, N.Y. through mutual friends while both were working in the financial industry. They fell in love over the summer on Fire Island, and married in February, 1962. Together they raised their daughters, Wendy, Cathy and Libby in Briarcliff Manor, N.Y. A steadfast, reliable husband and father, George once shared that if raising three strong daughters didn't make you a feminist, he wasn't sure what would. When the girls were little, George laced up their leather ski boots and shared his love of the sport with them. On the slopes, he carved beautiful, graceful turns, sometimes with a pipe in his mouth, for over 60 years. He enjoyed many a golf game, and as members of the Ardsley Curling Club, he and Marion got a kick out of participating in bonspiels in the Northeast, Canada and Europe in their later years. A lifelong world traveler, George pointed to their trip to Tahiti and French Polynesia aboard the MS Paul Gaugin, in celebration of their 50th wedding anniversary, as among his favorites. Marion, his wife of almost 60 years, passed away nearly four years to the day before George.

George graduated from Governor Dummer Academy, received his Bachelor's Degree in English Literature from Brown University and completed graduate work Columbia University Business School. He served in the Army from 1957 to 1959 and began his career as a pension administrator with Banker's Trust in Manhattan in 1960. Over the course of his 37 years at the bank, he rose to Managing Director of the Legal, Legislative and Regulatory Affairs Division of the Retirement Services Group. He also served professional associations in various capacities, including the Association of Private Pension and Welfare Plans; the Profit Sharing Council of America; the US Department of Labor Advisory Council; and the Pension Research Council of the Wharton School.

Growing up, George and his older brother, Tony and younger, sister Kate spent summers at his family's home, Braeloch, on the southeastern shores of Lake George in the Adirondacks. It was a special family gathering place for five generations, and George's favorite place on earth. He loved welcoming friends to the house, relished dinners and sunsets from the porch overlooking the lake, and backflipped off the diving board on the dock in his early 70s.

He is survived by sister, Kate Birdsall Duffy, Whitefish, Mont.; daughters, Wendy Cowles, San Francisco, Calif., Cathy Cowles, Durango, Colo. and Libby Cowles, Durango; son-in-law, Ed Young, Durango; grandsons, Renny Young, Durham, N.C., Chris Young, Durango, Colo., Finn Bridgham, Los Angeles, Calif. and Charlie Bridgham, Salt Lake City, Utah; and great-granddaughter, Willow Young, Durham.

To honor his memory, please consider a donation to the Lake George Association, a toast of bourbon, or a swim in a cool mountain lake.