George Henry Webb, Jr., (94) of Princeton, New Jersey and former resident of Darien and New Canaan, CT died on August 14, 2026 after a brief illness at the PennMed Hospital.
George was born on May 7, 1932 and grew up in Oradell, NJ. As a youth, he greatly enjoyed his years at Camp Dudley in Westport, NY where both his father (and eventually his son) were also campers. He attended Oradell Junior High School, until he transferred to Phillips Academy, Andover at age 11. After graduating from Andover in June of 1950, he enrolled at Princeton University, where he majored in Chemical Engineering, graduating in 1954. After a summer with Procter & Gamble in Cincinnati, he enrolled in the US Navy Officer Candidate School in Newport, RI. After completing that program, he served on the USS Soley (DD 707) as an Ensign. He spent the next 3 exciting years on the Soley as a Deck Officer and Electronics Officer. After two long cruises on the Indian Ocean, his ship returned home, each time around the tip of Africa because the Suez Canal had been closed by sunken vessels. After the Navy he returned to Procter & Gamble in Cincinnati and pursued technical engineering for a year. He then took a job at Pfizer, working as an engineer in the Brooklyn, NY fermentation pilot plant. Rather than commute to Brooklyn from his Oradell home, he joined a group of 18 other college graduates in an all-male residence in NYC called Rainsford House, which was owned by St. George’s Church, located directly across the street from the church at 208 East 16th Street. Each man was required to perform a weekly evening of community service. George was elected President of the House after his first year. During this time, he attended evening classes at NYU where he earned an MBA. Following two wonderful years at Rainsford House, he and two friends (one from Rainsford House and the other from the USS Soley) shared an apartment at 125 West 11th Street. Two years later, he moved alone to East 86th Street. By this time he had left Pfizer and joined McKinsey & Co. as a consultant. After several impactful years with McKinsey, he took a job as an engineer with Industrial Biochemicals in, Metuchen, NJ. Two years later, having played a key role in identifying and responding to costly leaks at the plant, George was elected President of Industrial Biochemicals. Drawing on his experience at Pfizer, he dramatically improved yields in the fermentation plant and was then ready for a new challenge.
He soon met and married Judy Chase from Houston and took a job as General Manager of the Early Learning Division of General Learning, a subsidiary of Time, Inc. After 2 years with General Learning, he decided to change industries again and joined Bill Owen as an Executive Recruiter. This change went well, and two years later, George formed his own recruiting firm in New York City with two partners. Several years later George Webb Associates was based on the top floor at 280 Park Avenue, by which time the firm had established an excellent reputation as a recruiter of senior executives. After a few years, the firm grew to five partners. It thrived for over 30 years and with George’s retirement in sight, it was sold to Korn Ferry in the early 2000’s.
