George C. CORCORAN George C. Corcoran, 82, who was among the students, citizens, trustees, faculty, administrators, and staff that launched the Seattle Community College District in 1967, died on December 27, 2011, of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. He is survived by his wife, Cleo, and relatives in Michigan, Montana, Connecticut, North and South Carolina. George was born in Pontiac, Michigan, on April 24, 1929, where he grew up. He graduated from Michigan State University and for three years served as a navigator on a U.S. Navy destroyer in the Western Pacific during the Korean War and afterward. Following his military service, George held management leadership positions in California with Ford Motor Company and Beckman Instruments, Inc., an international electronics and scientific/medical instrumentation firm. In 1967, he came to Seattle and joined the forming Seattle Community College District. George served as Executive Assistant to the founding President, Dr. Ed K. Erickson; then as Administrative Vice President, and as District President from 1974 to 1977. (Since the SCC District officially began, more than one million students have attended classes at its facilities.) In 1977, George and Rod Chandler, then a Washington State legislator, formed their own consulting firm, working with client boards and management teams on planning, governance and communications matters. When Mr. Chandler was elected to Congress in 1982, the firm continued as the Corcoran Consulting Group until George's retirement in 2009. During its 32-year history, the firm served approximately 1200 clients in 20 states and Canada. George loved Seattle and was extensively involved in community service activities in Seattle. He chaired the boards of United Way of King County, University Preparatory Academy (now University Prep), the Puget Sound Blood Center, the Group Health Foundation, Private Initiatives in Public Education (PIPE), and the North Seattle Community College Foundation. George was a founding Board member of the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce's Leadership Tomorrow, Urban Enterprise, and Alliance for Education organizations. He also headed multi-year capital fund-raising campaigns for the local chapter of the American Red Cross, where he was named an Honorary Lifetime Board Member, and for the Group Health Foundation. George was a member of the Rainier Club since 1975 and served as its President in 1998-99. He received a number of community service awards that included: "Chancellor-Emeritus" of the Seattle Community College District in 1994; "Citizen of the Year" by the Seattle-King County Municipal League in 1997, and first recipient of the "Jeri McDonald Community Service Award," sponsored by the Bank of America and the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce, in 2001. In 2011, he was awarded the Dr. S. Maimon Samuels Founders' Award by the Puget Sound Blood Center. George was known and beloved for his wise counsel, generous spirit and beautiful Christmas, birthday and special occasion notes and letters. His messages of encouragement, congratulations and sympathy were treasured by his many friends. Over recent decades, in honor of his children, Craig and Carol Corcoran, George and Cleo have established memorial scholarship funds to benefit future generations of Seattle Community College students at each of the three college campuses - North, Central and South, as well as contributing to a District Chancellor's Educational Excellence Fund for other supportive academic purposes. Contributions to any of these four funds, or to any charitable cause of your personal choice, are gratefully welcomed. Contributions to the Seattle Community College scholarship funds (indicating your campus preference or the Chancellor's Fund) may be sent for distribution to: The Foundation for Seattle Community Colleges, Craig and Carol Corcoran Memorial Endowment Fund, 1500 Harvard Avenue, Seattle, WA 98122; Phone: (206) 934-3872 A memorial service for George will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, January 11, 2012, at St. James Cathedral, 804 Ninth Avenue. The Very Reverend Michael G. Ryan, Pastor of St. James since 1988, will officiate. The service will be followed by a reception in the Saint James Pastoral Outreach Center, 907 Columbia Street, located immediately south of the Cathedral.
(Published in The Seattle Times from January 1 to January 8, 2012)

Middle Name: Clifford
Death Location: King County, WA, USA
[Contributed by Chris (#46836790)]