George Ives

George Allen Ives Jr. died peacefully on October 4, 2022 at 91 years of age. George was born in New Bern, NC on August 15, 1931. He attended New Bern public schools until his junior year of high school, when he transferred to Woodberry Forest School in Virginia. After graduating from Woodberry in 1949, George went to Princeton University where he joined the Naval ROTC. George would say his life changed forever when the Navy sent him to London as a Communications Officer in 1953.  There he met “the most beautiful woman he had ever seen:” a young Baltic German named Gisela von zur Muehlen. The pair were married in London in 1956 and began their wonderful and adventurous life together.

After completing his commission in the Navy, George joined the US Foreign Service. He and Gisela were posted to Asuncion, Paraguay where they made many lifelong friends.  His job eventually brought him back to Washington DC to serve in various capacities in the State Department.  Ultimately, he returned to New Bern to join the family business.  In New Bern, George was a devoted friend, business man and community leader. He loved the Trent River and Atlantic Beach.   He especially enjoyed his tenure as chairman of The Tryon Palace Commission, First Federal Savings & Loan, and as co-chair of the 1974 New Bern Bicentennial Celebration.   He also was on the Chatham Hall Board of Trustees, where he sent two daughters.  George loved opera and put that love to service with the NC Symphony where he served as trustee in the 1970’s and again in the late 1980’s.

He was a loving son, husband, father, brother, grandfather and uncle, and a consummate gentleman.  He was very proud of his family, and especially of the decades-long effort he and Gisela undertook to edit and publish his mother-in-law’s memoir titled In God’s Hands: A Noblewoman’s Struggle for Survival in War and Revolution.

George was predeceased by his loving wife of 60 years, Gisela, his parents G. Allen Ives and Dorothy Gregory Ives, and his sister Katherine Cox Gheesling and her daughter Gregory Ives Cox.   He is survived by his three daughters: Caroline Howard Pearce (Pete), Tanya Ives Jorgensen (Rick) and Dorothy Gregory Ives; and a son George Allen Ives, III (Lynn), and a niece Katherine Cox Michalove (Gary). He is also survived by four grandchildren who affectionately called him “Pop:” Joseph Henry Howard III (Taylor), Mary Ellen Jorgensen, George Allen Ives IV and Jane Gregory Ives.

The family would like to give special thanks to Philip Mwalali and his staff at Chariot Home Care, and also the nursing staff at Hillcrest of Durham.

A funeral service will be held at Christ Episcopal Church, 320 Pollock Street, New Bern, NC at 2pm on Saturday, November 19th, followed by a reception in the fellowship hall. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to Christ Church Memorial Fund, 320 Pollock Street, New Bern, NC 28560 or a charity of choice.