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George Calvin Longest, departed this life in the early hours of March 11, 2024, in the company of his deeply beloved wife and children. He was a man who devoted himself to loving his family and conducting himself with an innate generosity.
The youngest child of a large family, George graduated from John Marshall High School and received his B.A. and M.A. from the University of Richmond, followed by his Ph.D. at the University of Georgia. His first love and life’s work was teaching. As a member of the English Department of Virginia Commonwealth University, where he taught for 40 years, he published books and wrote and edited many articles and anthologies. But it was teaching in the classroom and inspiring young people to love literature that brought him the greatest fulfillment.
A more naturally kind and hospitable man would be extremely hard to find. He could easily quote from almost any work in the English language, from the King James Bible to Chaucer to Shakespeare. But it was in the more romantic American Literature that he would find his touchstones, among them Welty, O’Connor and the Transcendentalists.
Among his many interests, he studied and played the piano beautifully. His knowledge and appreciation of classical music and jazz were no less encyclopedic – a person who saw him listening to beautiful music witnessed the power of how music can affect an individual.
Lastly, and perhaps because of his agrarian roots going back generations in the Tidewater of Virginia, or perhaps because of the research for his book Genius in the Garden, George devoted countless hours of his life to gardening. He would just as soon devote his time and energy to the streetscape and garden of a neighbor as to his own. He wanted only to see and experience Truth and Beauty in this world. And that he did.
Unfailingly gracious, deferential, and generous to everyone he encountered, George embodied the spirit of a true gentleman.
Left to remember him are his wife, Jean; daughters, Maura Gaenzle (Rick), Heather McGuire (Hunter) and Jennifer Ascoli (Paul); and his son, Montgomery Maguire, all of Richmond; his grandchildren, Margaret, Caroline and Isabelle Gaenzle, Hunter and Gardiner McGuire, Joseph, Georgiana and Andrew Ascoli and Marlowe Maguire; and many nieces, nephews, other relatives and dear friends. “Papa” showed us in his words and actions how to live with integrity, love, humor, generosity, humility and sense of purpose.
There will be a graveside service on Saturday, March 23, at 11 a.m. in Hollywood Cemetery, with a reception to follow at The Commonwealth Club.
In lieu of flowers, we would be honored if you planted something beautiful in your garden in George’s memory.
To plant Memorial Trees in memory of George Calvin Longest, please click here to visit our Sympathy Store.
