From the Town Topics:
George C. Ford, 88, of Princeton, died March 18 at Merwick Care Center after a long illness. He had been a Princeton resident since 1958.
Born in New York City to George Fudakowski and Leonida Krajewska Fudakowska, and raised in Greenwich, Conn., he was a graduate of The Edgewood School, Swarthmore College ('43) and Harvard Business School ('48).
Mr. Ford began his career as an electrical engineer in the R&D department of Curtiss-Wright in Caldwell, N.J., where he worked on the design of America's first guided missile, reverse-engineered from the German V-1 rocket. Changing fields to finance in 1948, he joined Reaction Motors in Rockaway, N.J., the first commercial rocket engine company in the U.S. In 1952, he became comptroller of the Piasecki Aircraft Corporation in Philadelphia.
From 1958 through 1979, Mr. Ford held a variety of executive positions at Research-Cottrell in Bedminster, N.J., the pollution control equipment manufacturer, including head of strategic planning and president of Research-Cottrell International. He was instrumental in expanding the product range by acquiring pollution control companies in North America and Europe, including Flex-Kleen, Custodis, and Hamon, the manufacturer of natural draft cooling towers which became the reference for the industry.
His tenure at Research-Cottrell was marked by the rapid growth of the industry and its infrastructure, the arrival of nuclear power plants, and the enactment of the Clean Air Act of 1970 that monitors and limits toxic emissions.
In 1980, he established George C. Ford & Associates, a management consulting firm which focused on strategic analysis of the U.S. markets for electric power for major suppliers to the electric utility industry. He retired in 2006.
He was a strong supporter of the arts in Princeton, serving as founding chairman of the Princeton Regional Ballet Company and as a director of the Princeton Ballet Society, Princeton Pro Musica, and the Montgomery Center for the Arts.
He was member of Springdale Golf Club, The Nassau Club, The Mid Ocean Club in Bermuda, and Lake Paupac Club in the Poconos. He enjoyed photography, tennis, golf, and especially sailing in the Caribbean and his annual trips to Saas Fee, Switzerland for hiking.
He is survived by his wife of 35 years, Nancy Shannon Ford; five children from a previous marriage to Barbara Mott Patton: Greta F. Hayton of San Ramon, Calif., Paul F. Ford of Berkeley, Calif., Thomas M. Ford of Princeton, Edward G. Ford of Cooperstown, N.Y., and George W. Ford of Pennington; a brother, Thomas I. Ford of Chattanooga, Tenn.; five grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held at Trinity Church in Princeton at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, March 30. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be sent to Princeton Pro Musica, Box 1313, Princeton, NJ 08542.
Arrangements are by the Kimble Funeral Home.
Other obituaries: New York Times, Trenton (NJ) Times
Fudakowski-Krajewski family home