Died October 29, 2014,Fort Myers, Florida
College: Trumbull
Children: Gillian, 1967
FORT MYERS, Fla. — George Anthony Gratton Darlow, 76, formerly of Washington, Conn., died peacefully Oct. 29, 2014, at his home in Florida.
Mr. Darlow was born in Rochester, N.Y., on June 16, 1938, a son of the late Alfred M. and Lillian (Gratton) Darlow. He was the grandson of Edward Ruff Darlow, who in the late 1800s and early 1900s owned several railroads, including the Buffalo and Susquehanna. He was predeceased by his older brothers, Alfred and Edward Darlow, children of Alfred M. by a prior marriage.
A graduate of Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., Mr. Darlow went on to Yale University (class of 1961), where he was active in the Colony Foundation (Berzelius) and the Yale Record, America’s oldest college humor magazine. After college, Mr. Darlow attended the Naval Justice School and served as a legal officer on board the USS Hancock aircraft carrier in the Pacific. Mr. Darlow later attended Columbia University Law School in New York City, where he earned a J.D. in 1971.
A lifelong philanthropist and art collector, Mr. Darlow served for many years on the board of directors of the Institute for American Indian Studies, among other organizations. In 1994, he made an unsuccessful but well-publicized bid for probate court judge for the district of Washington. For approximately 25 years, Mr. Darlow lived in Washington, at times raising ostriches and bison on his 26-acre property, now part of the Mayflower Grace Inn. In the late 1990s, he began a gradual transition to southwestern Florida, first living aboard his beloved Salmagundi and making several roundtrip journeys through the 6,000+-mile Great Circle Route, before later moving to homes in Alva and Fort Myers, where he resided until his death.
He is survived by his daughter, Gillian Darlow, his son-in-law, Chris Jones, and two grandsons, Peter Nicholas Darlow Jones and Evan Donovan Darlow Jones, of Evanston, Ill.
An informal memorial service will be held 11 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 8, 2014, at Washington Green Cemetery