Kirchewey, George

Description

George W. Kirchwey was born in New York February 14, 1920 to Karl W. and Helen Jarvis Kirchwey. The census records show his families Home in 1940: New Canaan, Fairfield, Connecticut. He was a graduate of Philips Exeter Academy and then graduated Yale, class of 1942, where he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon and of Skull and Bones.

George married Barbara VanderGaw Wheeler in New Haven, Connecticut, on April 25, 1942, when he was 22 years old and a senior at Yale.

Immediately after his graduation, he enlisted on June 3, 1942 and served in the U.S. Army during World War II as a member of the 3rd Army. The Third Army After Action of May 1945 states that the Third Army captured 765,483 prisoners of war, with an additional 515,205 of the enemy already held in corps and divisional level POW camps processed between 9 May and 13 May 1945, for a total of 1,280,688 POWs, and that, additionally, Third Army forces killed 144,500 enemy soldiers and wounded 386,200, for a total of 1,811,388 in enemy losses.

George’s brother Karl W. Kirchwey was a Naval Pilot on the USS Enterprise was killed June 15,1944 when his plane was shot down during the invasion of Saipan.

George received his honorable discharge on October 12, 1945.

After the war, George joined Dewey and Almy’s Container Products sales department at Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1950 after serving with the Seymour Manufacturing Co. He was appointed western general manager in 1957.

After his first marriage ended he married Ellen Douglas Allen in 1954 when he was 34 years old.

In the 1960’s and 70’s he became marketing director of the European division of the Grace Industrial Chemical Co.

George W. Kirchwey died on May 21, 1988 in Norwalk, CT.

At the time of his death he was survived by his third wife, Eva (Stoffer) Kirchwey and children Karl W., George A. and Cathy W. Agnew. Stepfather of Boylston Adams Tompkins III and Vinton Douglas Tompkins. One grandchild also survives.

Memorial services 3 p.m. Friday, First Presbyterian Church, of New Canaan, CT. Contributions to Connecticut Lung Assoc., 126 Hoyt St., Stamford, CT. 06905 appreciated.