Princeton grad, former Marine, fundraiser
George Ramonat (Courtesy photo)
After a long battle with Parkinson disease, George Ramonat died on April 5, 2010, at Kindred Hospital in Waltham, where he had been confined for three months. He was 74.
George loved to make people laugh. He was a positive, outgoing, larger-than-life personality who pushed himself and others to be their very best. A lifelong athlete who took pride in keeping in top physical condition, he continued to swim and work out, despite increasing limitations.
Open and friendly, George thrived on interacting with all kinds of people. And he loved getting people going, pushing to the limit, whether it was engaging in intellectual debate or over-the-top humor, encouraging co-workers to explore new possibilities, or socializing with his cronies at the gym after workouts. Life was a joyful competition to George, and he played with boundless energy and an I-can-do-it confidence and determination.
Born in a suburb of Philadelphia and an only child, George attended Episcopal Academy and later Princeton University, graduating with honors in 1957. At Princeton he swam and played football, and there he started friendships that he maintained for the rest of his life. George regarded Princeton as one of his greatest experiences, and he was an ardent fundraiser for the university up until a few years ago.
Immediately after Princeton, George went into the Marine Corps, where he served for four years. Here his organizational skills and drive for excellence, both personal and physical, were further honed, and he helped the men under his command to develop themselves by focusing on their strengths.
After the service he went into sales and marketing, becoming vice president of a small company in Pennsylvania. For a time he owned a retail store in Bethlehem, Penn., where he played an instrumental role in the rejuvenation of the historical downtown area.
When the collapse of Bethlehem Steel devastated the economy of northeastern Pennsylvania, George relocated to Princeton, N.J., to begin a new career in fundraising at his beloved alma mater. In the mid-1980s he was encouraged by a college friend to move to Massachusetts to become the director of Individual Giving at MIT, where he worked until retiring in 2001. George loved MIT, seeing it as a unique and stimulating environment. In the workplace George is remembered as a great teacher and mentor who helped people develop their skills. It was at MIT where he met his second wife, Pat. Pat says that she and George used to ride the same commuter train to work, but that for a long time she avoided talking to him because he always looked so serious and she didn’t want to talk “shop.” One day, exiting the train, she had a coughing fit and George extended a hand with a cough drop in it. She discovered a good-natured, fun-loving person beneath that suit-and-tie exterior. They were married in Harvard in January 1996.
In 1998 George was hospitalized with Guillain-Barré disease, which caused paralysis of his extremities. His fight to recover was aided by the fact that he was in excellent physical condition. But as he regained the use of his limbs, it became clear that he had rheumatoid arthritis and the early signs of Parkinson disease.
George refused to be brought down by his disease. He continued workouts at the gym six days a week and his daily swim of 1,000 yards. Pat tells the story of how on cold, drizzly, summer days at Bare Hill Pond, the lifeguards would groan when they saw George’s car pull up because one of them would have to climb the tower and sit in the chair while George swam his 1,000 yards. They fondly dubbed him the “Energizer bunny.”
George loved Harvard, and he became a fixture at the pond. Former resident Ellie Buford and the rest of the “beach bums” adored him, and he was the first male they allowed to join them on the beach. For years he had a small sailboat, later a rowboat, and a many-hands “wreck” of a motorboat.
Until the end, George remained positive and interested in the world around him, and was always ready to tell or hear a joke. In his health and in his illness he was an inspiration to others to live life fully and to do everything as well as one possibly can.
George is survived by his widow, Patricia C. Ramonat; his three children, Susan Szumski of Norristown, Penn.; Kenneth Ramonat of San Francisco, Calif.; and Whit of Bloomfield Hills, Mich.; his two stepchildren, William and Amy Deeks; six grandchildren; and a cousin, Kay Calvin, and her husband, Tom Bolduc, of Los Angeles, Calif.
A memorial service will be held June 26 at 2 p.m. at the Harvard Historical Society in Still River.
