George Gardner Herrick died on Christmas Day, December 25, 2024. A loyal, loving, learned man has left us. A former senior CIA operations officer, he had postings amounting to 11 years in Brussels and London. He narrowly survived a dangerous mission in Tehran, Iran in 1979 at the onset of the Islamic Revolution. He was awarded the Career Intelligence Medal. He found his career challenging and richly fulfilling. He was an intelligence officer, bibliophile, avocational historian, and amateur naturalist. He will be greatly missed and long remembered by all who knew and loved him.
He was preceded in death by his brother, Myron T. Herrick, but survived by his sister, Anita G. Herrick of Washington, D.C.
Following his retirement in 1988, Herrick dedicated his efforts to the management of a family property in Maine and the development of its conservation program. That experience led to his founding in 1996 of and thereafter leading the Eastern Maine Conservation Initiative, a non-profit organization focused on conservation programs on the Eastern Maine coast for 22 years. Ten Years on Roque Island, a chronicle of life and conservation on an island farm, Squire’s Point, A Boston Family on a Maine Island and two diaries, resulted from the Maine experience. In an effort to revive and to promote a favorite literary product, Herrick compiled fifteen commonplace books, becoming an acknowledged master and historian of that humorous and sometimes esoteric form. A longtime interest in book collecting led to membership in The Club of Odd Volumes in Boston and The Grolier Club in New York. A passion for the game resulted in The Origins of Croquet in America, 1859-1873. Newport publications included Newport 1853, A Golden Year and three one act plays about Newport. He also wrote Journey Into Newport, 1990-2010. His personal library was the envy of discerning friends. He has given over l,000 books to the Redwood Library.
Born on 8 April 1938 in New York City, Herrick spent most of his formative years in the Boston area, graduating from St. Mark’s School cum laude, winning the top athletic prize as a three-letter man while captaining the league-winning ice hockey team and batting .552 on the baseball nine, a school record at the time. When his parents, the late Parmely W. (an international banker) and Katherine Gardner Herrick, moved to Paris, France, he spent two years at Le Rosey School in Switzerland before returning to resume his education at Harvard College where he escaped with a magna cum laude in European History, while making lasting friendships, especially at the A.D. Club. After Harvard, he spent two years at Balliol College, Oxford, earning an M.A. degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics. The Oxford experience shaped his intellectual outlook and formed his aesthetic sensibility. The years of schooling abroad as well as travel in Europe inspired his interest in international affairs. After a year at the Harvard Business School, he worked three years in the international department of a Wall Street investment firm before embarking on his career in intelligence.
He enjoyed membership in the Knickerbocker Club (New York), The Newport Reading Room, The Clambake Club, The Newport Country Club and The Spouting Rock Beach Association (Newport) and many other social clubs over the years such as the Travellers Club (Paris), and Cosmos Club (Washington, D.C.), being a member also of The Pilgrims, The Society of the Cincinnati and The Order of St. John in New York.
He was known for his many cultural, intellectual and sporting interests, for the excellence of his table in early years, and for an occasional colorful style of dress. He was a born raconteur. Diaries, journals, and letters were his main literary interest, and he enjoyed writing all three. Together with conversation, he considered them among the Fine Arts. His writings are full of little histories and literary references to subjects that took years of reading to assemble. He read about 5,000 books in a busy life. A lover of words, he contributed over a dozen new words and definitions to the O.E.D. Charitable interests included education, wildlife conservation, libraries, and historical societies. Bird watching (456 American species seen) was another skill and a lifelong passion. Ice hockey, tennis and golf were enthusiasms in their day. Later on, he became President of the Newport Croquet Club, the oldest croquet club (1864) in America. His political and philosophical sympathies were grounded in the rich conservative philosophical tradition.
In Newport he was variously a member of the boards or committees of the Redwood Library, The Preservation Society, The Aquidneck Land Trust, The Newport Historical Society, the Island Cemetery, and The Newport Hospital through which he touched many people with his charm and intelligence. He worshiped at Trinity (Episcopal) Church.
He is survived by his second wife, Nannette C. Cavanagh of 31 years, the love of his life and source of his happiness, for whom his love and admiration knew no bounds, and three sons, Jason Herrick (Lindsay), Adam Herrick, and Timothy Herrick (Katie) from his first marriage to Katryna R. Brett, as well as three stepchildren John H. I. Brokaw Jr. (Jenny), Christina Brokaw Bassett (Todd) and Justin A. Kreizel (Catherine). Altogether, there are nine grandchildren from the combined team and their admirable spouses. Being a husband, father, stepfather and grandfather were joys of his life. Long running friendships were a silver lining to a golden privilege.
He descended from Theodore W. Phinney, who came to Newport in 1832 and through his granddaughter Rose Dimond Phinney to the extensive William Grosvenor family in Newport and from G. Peabody and Rose Gardner of Boston. He was a greatgrandson of Myron T. Herrick, the celebrated American Ambassador to France, and a great nephew of Isabella Stewart Gardner, the famous Boston art collector.
He lived in Boston, New York, Washington D.C., Brussels, London, and Paris before moving full time to Newport in 2003, after summering there since 1990.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Redwood Library and Athenaeum, Newport or the Eastern Maine Conservation Initiative, Portland, Maine.
Services will be held at a later date.
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