George Grunsky Taylor

June 6, 1919 - April 18, 2020

After a long life of giving to the community, George Taylor has quietly left this world. He was preceded in death by siblings, Martha Anne Dobson, Elizabeth “Betty Lou” Taylor, and Col. B.G. Taylor, Jr. “Uncle George” is survived by nieces Patricia Taylor, Kathy Royal, Peggy Dobson, Kate Mellina, Mary Englick, Sara Luse, by nephews Michael Taylor and B. Grant Taylor, III, and grand-nephew, Mark Misaghi, and their families.

Born in San Francisco to Kate Louise and Benjamin Grant Taylor, George graduated from Galileo High School, the University of California at Berkeley, and Hastings College of the Law. Following a brief legal career, George worked for the Sequoia Union High School District until his retirement in 1985.

George’s distinguished California roots run very deep. His father, B. Grant Taylor, was Clerk of the California State Supreme Court. Carl E. Grunsky, his grandfather, was San Francisco’s City Engineer—one of the initial Hetch Hetchy project engineers and an appointee of President Roosevelt to the Panama Canal’s first Isthmian Commission who later presided over the California Academy of Sciences. Other family included Albert Gallatin, 1877 builder of California’s ornate Governor’s Mansion and whose daughter, Jane Gallatin Powers, founded the artists’ colony of Carmel, and more recently, cousins Donald Grunsky, California State Senator from Santa

Cruz County, and noted Bay Area architect, William W. Wurster.

George enjoyed country living on the family’s Baywood Glen property west of Redwood City, current site of Edgewood County Park. Throughout his life, he was an avid reader, horseback rider, baritone singer, and folk dancer, generously sharing this talent by teaching dancing to the youth detained at San Mateo County’s juvenile detention facility, Hillcrest. He was a literacy tutor, and throughout his retirement, volunteered three days a week building and maintaining trails at Hidden Villa in the Los Altos Hills. George was a lifelong member of the Unitarian–Universalist Church, and will be remembered fondly for his love of animals, his pragmatism, quick wit, precise use of language, frankness, and his endless supply of advice on all matters.

Per his wish, no services are planned; donations may be made to Hidden Villa (26870 Moody Road Los Altos Hills, CA 94022), or to a favorite charitable cause.