William D. George

Bill George liked to claim he excelled in only two things: skipping rocks and making Manhattans. He did both of those really well, even into his 90s. But he had other stories to tell.

He died in the early morning of Sept. 14, 2026, at his home in The Cedars retirement community in Chapel Hill. He was 93.

William D. George Jr. was born in Chicago in 1932, in the Depression, at a time when his father was selling construction steel on commission and his folks and his sister were boarding with his elderly grandparents.

He graduated from DePauw University, served two years in Army counterintelligence and then earned a Harvard MBA. Other than an unsuccessful stint trying to sell toothpaste, home hair permanents and shampoo off a P&G display truck, his first real job was at General Mills in Minneapolis. There he met and fell in love with Ellie Elsing, a South Dakota girl working at Pillsbury. They married in 1964. She died in 2020 after 56 years together.

Their sons are David, Douglas and Stephen, daughters-in-law are Amy Shaw, Christina and Megan, and six grandchildren are Nate, Kayla, Lillie, Elise, Owen and Sembete. As the grandkids grew, his greatest rewards were family Christmases and summer reunions, especially a 50th anniversary week with everyone in Tuscany.

After Minneapolis, work took them to St. Louis with Brown Shoe, then to Racine, Wisconsin, with SC Johnson. He retired from that great family company as president, CEO and board member in 1996.

Some CEOs are immortalized as tough and individualistic. Bill much preferred to be viewed as trustworthy and a team builder. The 136-year-old SCJ family traditions and values fit him well. He continued to serve on other corporate boards until age 75.

Ellie and Bill retired to a lovely house they had built in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in 1997. Bill’s rock skipping was good, his golf shots errant but he kept active, often on missions with his church. He was also a poor carpenter, but post-Hurricane Katrina he helped with demolition and clean-up.

Hiking became a primary diversion and he and Ellie joined favorite guides on several European treks and New Zealand’s Milford Track. He was especially proud of his 190-mile Coast-to-Coast walk in England and hikes with sons in Glacier, in the Badlands and Black Hills of their mother’s home state, and in Nova Scotia.

Bill abstained from the world of technology. He stayed with a film camera to the end and avoided social media like the plague. His cell phone had no apps that he knew of and when he once tried to arrange for a ride with Uber, he enrolled as a driver by mistake.

Bill and Ellie spent many totally satisfying years in The Cedars retirement community.

In 2024, he met Suzan Cheek, also of The Cedars, and that opened a new, late-in-life chapter for both of them. Bill and Suzan quickly became close enjoying regular Friday gatherings at his house on Cedar Pond Lane with friends including Tom Nuzum, going out to concerts and traveling, including a 2025 summer getaway in Banner Elk in the Carolina mountains.

They were often accompanied by Suzan’s niece Mary Gaines, and both were at his side constantly during occasional health struggles in summer 2026.

His flashes of humor and his Christmas letters will be missed. He considered this obituary, which he wrote, to be his last.

Contributions can be made to your favorite charity.