George Somerville Colpitts Sr., 69, died at home in Durham, NC,
surrounded by his family on December 25, 2008, of complications from
cancer. He was born on October 7, 1939, to James and Edith Colpitts of
Newport, Vermont. He was a scholar and state all-star football player
at North Country Union High School, attended Middlebury College in
Vermont on an academic scholarship and went on to a MBA at New York
University.
At Middlebury he met and married his wife of 46 years, Cynthia
Katherine Seitz, in June 1962. He was an executive for IBM in New York
and then began a respected antiques business, Carriage Trade Antiques,
in Waitsfield, Vermont, retiring with his wife in 1995. The Colpitts
lived in Darien followed by Greenwich, Connecticut; Warren, Vermont;
summering at their houses in Newport Center, Vermont, or Nantucket,
Massachusetts; wintering on North Captiva Island, Florida, and later
St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands; and Chapel Hill, North Carolina. George
was a member of the Nantucket Beach Club and St. Croix Yacht Club.
He is survived by his wife Cynthia Colpitts, also of Durham, North
Carolina; Newport Center, Vermont; and St. Croix, USVI; his son George
Colpitts Jr. and wife Ley, also of Durham; and granddaughters Katherine
Colpitts, Shelly Colpitts and Abby Blaine. He was predeceased by his
faithful chocolate Labrador "Truffle" in October. The family can be
reached at 311 Helmsdale Drive, Chapel Hill, NC 27517.
He is loved and remembered by many extended family members and friends
as a charming and engaging companion, one who loved to read and was,
therefore, a vast repository of useless information (as he liked to
say), a wonderful and prolific storyteller, a devoted NY Giants and
Boston Red Sox fan, and most of all a kind and loving husband, father
and grandfather.
The funeral and burial will be held in Vermont at a later date in the
spring, as is tradition in wintry New England. The family would like to
thank the physicians and staff of the Gastrointestinal Oncology,
Radiation Treatment and Oncological Treatment Departments of the Duke
Comprehensive Cancer Center. Memorial donations may be made to the Duke
Comprehensive Cancer Center, DUMC 3828, Durham, NC 27710.
