George McJimsey

George Tilden McJimsey March 9, 1936-May 1, 2026 Beloved by his wife, daughter, and extended family, respected by his colleagues and students, and a trusted friend to many, George Tilden McJimsey died on May 1, 2026. A visitation will be Wednesday, July 1, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. at Ames United Church of Christ, 217 6th Street, where the memorial service for George will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, July 2. This obituary borrows from the one George himself wrote in May 2019, shortly after he survived a near-fatal cancer metastasis. It is what George wanted to share about his life. George Tilden McJimsey and his identical twin brother, Robert Duncan McJimsey, were born in Dallas, Texas, on March 9, 1936. Joseph Bailey McJimsey was their father. Harriet Tilden McJimsey was their mother. Robert was George's best friend. A self-described "naturalized Iowan," George moved with his family to Ames, Iowa, at the age of 8. George loved Ames and he believed that moving to Ames gave him the chance to succeed in life. George was baptized and confirmed at the Congregational church, where his forebears had worshipped. Those well-educated forebears also instilled in George a ...[more]

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n intellectual curiosity. After George graduated from Ames High in 1954, Grinnell College was his next stop. Along with academic endeavors that earned him a Phi Beta Kappa key, George was glad to have had the opportunity to participate in athletic activities, especially basketball. He was captain of his high school and college teams, in his senior year Most Valuable Player of his Grinnell College team, and second team All-Midwest Conference. His approach to the game was: train hard, play hard, play fair, shake hands at the end. Graduating from Grinnell College in 1958 with honors and a degree in history, George would leave Iowa for graduate studies. He received a M.A. from Columbia University, which he attended on a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, and a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he was awarded various fellowships and assistantships. In 1964-65, he taught at Portland State College in Oregon before happily returning to Ames. For 37 years George was an American History professor at Iowa State University, where he rose to the rank of full professor and served as department chair for 10 years. Upon retirement in 2002 he was a Fulbright Scholar, teaching at the University of Cologne in Germany. George was cut out to be a college professor. He loved reading, writing, and teaching. He enjoyed the fellowship of his colleagues, classroom teaching, graduate training, the atmosphere of campus life, and the quiet of his library study. Known as the "student's friend," he enjoyed interacting with students, learning about their backgrounds and aspirations, then mentoring them. In conversation, you could tell quickly that he had a great sense of humor, a knack for storytelling, and a remarkable ability to recall not only obscure details from American history, but also movie lines, verses of poetry, Cubs baseball stats, quotes from literature. Again, a perfect fit for a historian. An essentially frugal--but unstintingly generous--person, he appreciated that college professors were not expected to dress well, and thus he did not need an expensive wardrobe. Lifelong, his favorite treat was a yellow No. 2 pencil. Over the course of his career, he published 4 books and edited a 50-volume set of curated Franklin D. Roosevelt papers, graded AP exams for the Educational Testing Service, was regularly a panelist for the National Endowment for the Humanities, and gave numerous papers and programs at a variety of venues on a variety of historical and current topics. In 1998 Grinnell College awarded George a Doctor of Humane Letters degree in honor of his contributions to his profession and his service to others. From his studies, George came to revere the American mission as expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, which aspired to an inclusive society with equal rights for all. His fervent belief in the democratic process led him to participate in local politics. He believed the American mission was best embodied in the Democratic Party, which he joined in 1968 and supported in various capacities until 2010. A dedicated member of the Story County Democratic Central Committee for many years, George liked to say it helped him hone his door-knocking, phone-calling, envelope-stuffing, poll-watching, and voter-turnout skills. Throughout his years, nothing matched sharing his life with Sandra and their daughter, Anne. When George met Sandra, it was love at first sight. They married in 1970 and within a year would move into the house that was his home until the day he died. After retirement George would quip that the only decision he had to make anymore was which room he would sit in to read. He loved their home. He always thought of Sandra with love and admiration for her commitment to their home, her selfless desire to contribute to the well-being of others and to the common good, and to the nurturing of Anne, who grew up with the same values and an independent self-confidence that led her to settle into life in Chicago. When Anne moved to Chicago in 1997 you could still walk up to the Wrigley box office and buy tickets for $15. To George this was like hitting the jackpot. As a kid he had loved listening to Cubs games on the radio with Robert and their grandfather, Lucian Tilden. At that time, he never imagined he would travel beyond the Mississippi. But he did. He eagerly traveled throughout Europe and to England, Scotland, Mexico, India, Italy, Canada, Costa Rica, and many areas of the United States, however, George most enjoyed the wide-open spaces of Iowa and his life in the Ames community. It is here that he could bicycle to work, to do errands, to frequent a great public library, to train for RAGBRAI. It is here that he could take a daily 6-mile run from home, into the countryside, and back. It is here that he experienced the joys of fatherhood, strolling Anne around the neighborhood, umping her childhood softball games, attending myriad recitals and concerts, welcoming her friends into our home. It is here that he formed companionable friendships and served others through his profession, his church, his volunteer activities for most of his 90 years. What a golden life, he often remarked. George's parents and his brother predeceased him. Surviving him are Sandra, Anne (Daniel) Farkas, and his three beautiful grandchildren, Sophia and Harrison Feinberg and Samara Farkas; sister-in-law, Marianna McJimsey, nieces Elizabeth (Will) Souder and Katharine McJimsey (Michael Wood), nephew George D. (Brenna) McJimsey, and their children Emily, Abigail, Jack, and Ben Souder, Georgia and Naomi Wood, and Rowan and Malcolm McJimsey; sister-in law, Judith (John) Schneller and nieces Jill Schneller (Christian Bohn) and Jane (Ruben) Plaza and their children Henning and Rasmus Bohn and Trey and Alexa Plaza; and his Tilden, Brown, McJimsey and Bryant cousins. George's family is grateful to the oncology doctors and staff at McFarland Clinic and Mary Greeley Medical Center's Bliss Cancer Center for decades of lifegiving care and thanks Mary Greeley's hospice caregivers and the Home Instead staff for their recent compassionate care. If you wish to honor George's life, in lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the Ames History Museum, Food at First, Legal Aid of Story County, or Interfaith Alliance of Iowa.