George Wilson Mead II

MADISON / WISCONSIN RAPIDS - George W. Mead Il, an icon in the Wisconsin and North American paper industry, died in Madison, Wis., on Friday, July 29, 2022. He was 94. George was well known for his leadership of Consolidated Papers, Inc., formerly headquartered in Wisconsin Rapids, and also for his leadership in the paper industry.

At the time of his death, he continued to serve as chairman of the Mead Witter Foundation, Inc., a family philanthropic foundation. George was the motivating force for the Foundation's recent gift to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which created the Mead Witter Foundation concert hall in its new performance building on University Avenue, and for which the University conferred the honor of naming the music school the Mead Witter School of Music. He also founded the Wisconsin River Papermaking Museum in Wisconsin Rapids and often personally conducted tours for school children who visited the museum.

Mead was chairman and CEO of Consolidated Papers, Inc., from 1971 to 1993. He continued to serve as chairman until 2000 when the company was purchased by Stora Enso, Oyj, a paper company headquartered in Helsinki, Finland. He was then invited to serve on the Stora Enso board of directors, a position he held until 2004.

George joined Consolidated in 1952, the company his great-grandfather started in 1894. He began as a chemical engineer and progressed to production manager and quality manager before becoming vice president of operations in 1962. He was elected a corporate director in 1963. In 1966, George became president and chief executive officer, the position he held until 1971 when he was named chairman and CEO. Under Mead's leadership the company grew to nearly $2 billion in sales, was designated a Fortune 500 company, and became known as the world's leading producer of coated printing papers for magazines, catalogs and annual reports. The company was valued at $4.8 billion at the time of its sale.

Throughout his career, George took a keen interest in business affairs. He served on a variety of corporate boards including Snap-on Tools Corporation, Kenosha, Wis.; Soo Line Corporation, Minneapolis, Minn.; Thiele Kaolin Company, Sandersville, Ga.; Firstar Corporation, Milwaukee, Wis.; First Wisconsin Bank of Wisconsin Rapids; and Mountain National Bank, Woodland Park, Colo.

Mead also held key positions in national papermaking organizations. He served as a director of the American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA); a director and chairman for the National Council for Air and Stream Improvement (NCASI); a council member of The Conservation Fund; and a director of the Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry (TAPPI). Along the way, the industry conferred awards for his leadership. He was named a TAPPI Fellow in 1973; Paper Industry Management Association (PIMA) Man of the Year in 1986; and he was inducted into the Papermakers International Hall of Fame in 1998. In 1994, the Syracuse Pulp and Paper Foundation, Inc., and the SUNY College of Environmental Science & Forestry, presented Mead with the Herman Louis Joachim Award for Excellence in Management. His philosophy was to "manage by walking around," long before it became a buzz-term in management textbooks. George felt most happy to be out in the mill talking to those who were making paper, solving problems and improving operations. His technical training and early assignments in the mill gave him a special connection with workers. He always asked to be called "George," rather than Mr. Mead, and that is how everyone in the company, community, paper industry, and extending to the New York financial community addressed him.

Like his father, Stanton Mead, George was an avid conservationist. He continued the work of his father in preservation of land for hunting and fishing through active involvement in the affairs of the Mead Wildlife Area, a 33,000-acre property owned and operated by the DNR in Central Wisconsin; the promotion of best forestry practices on Consolidated Papers' 692,000 acres of timberlands in the U.S. and Canada, as well as serving on the board of Trees for Tomorrow, Inc., a Wisconsin organization focused on introducing young people to careers in the forest industry.  

Besides his involvement at the national level in the improvement of water quality of rivers and streams, George was a forceful proponent of improvements in water management and quality for the Wisconsin River. Among his many Consolidated responsibilities, he was an officer of both the Consolidated Water Power Company, which owns and operates five dams on the Wisconsin River, and the Wisconsin River Power Company which controls another two dams. George was always very proud to state that except for "a few years away at school," he lived on the shores of the Wisconsin River his entire life. In 1983, the Wisconsin DNR, in recognition of Mead's accomplishments, awarded Consolidated Papers the coveted John Brogan Award for the many improvements made in this area. Perhaps George's most famous photo, which was widely published by State news media in 1977, was a photo of him drinking a glass of treated effluent from the company's newly constructed state-of-the-art Water Renewal Center in Whiting, Wis.

In the academic realm, Mead served as a trustee of Lawrence University, Appleton, Wis., for 30 years; he also served as trustee, vice chairman and chairman of the board for the Institute of Paper Chemistry, later the Institute of Paper Science and Technology (IPST), Atlanta, Ga. In 2004, IPST awarded him an honorary doctorate. Mead also holds an honorary doctorate from the Milwaukee School of Engineering. In 2009, Yale's Science & Engineering Association conferred the Award for Distinguished Service to Industry, Commerce or Education to him in a special ceremony in New Haven, Conn.

More locally, following in the tradition of both the Witter and Mead family support of community, George worked his entire life to improve and preserve open park space for public use along the banks of the Wisconsin River. On the day of his death, a new park funded by the Mead Witter Foundation opened in downtown Wisconsin Rapids overlooking the river he loved. He had quietly toured the park several weeks before.

George's other local involvement included service on the library board, providing leadership during construction of the current community library; leadership to the local Riverview Hospital Association; terms on the local chamber of commerce board; time as trustee of the First Congregational Church; and membership in the Wisconsin Rapids Rotary Club from 1958 until his death.

George was an accomplished downhill skier, a sport he continued until well over 85 years of age. He skied the Colorado mountains with hometown friends, business friends, but was especially happy to be on the slopes with his grandson and other family members who skied.

Dixieland jazz was George's favorite music. He enthusiastically supported the Madison Jazz Society and also assisted in the archiving at Stanford University of the Jim Cullum Riverwalk Jazz concerts long aired on Wisconsin Public Radio. George personally sponsored or recruited many musicians to perform in the local McMillan Library, a building he guided through construction in the 1970s. He could often be found on concert night in the back row of the theater thoroughly enjoying the music. Concert goers, most of whom he knew by first name, often came to shake his hand as they left. He also saw to it that the Mead Witter Foundation subsidized concerts through the recent years of national economic recession, when free library concerts provided an evening of entertainment for community residents.

Mead received his early education in Wisconsin Rapids and then attended Hotchkiss Preparatory School, Lakeville, Conn., prior to enrolling in Yale University, New Haven, Conn. After graduation from Yale in 1950, with a degree in chemistry, Mead went on to receive an M.S. degree from the Institute of Paper Chemistry, Appleton, Wis., in 1952.

Mead was born in Milwaukee, Wis., on Oct. 11, 1927. George is the son of Stanton W. and Dorothy W. Mead; the grandson of George Wilson Mead and Ruth Witter Mead; and the great-grandson of J.D. and Emily Witter, all of Wisconsin Rapids. During his college years, he married Helen Anderson in Connecticut. He later married Susan Feith in Wisconsin Rapids.

Mead is survived by his wife, Susan; daughters, Deborah Mead Tillotson, Chicago, and Leslie Bryant Frisinger, Madison; and son, David Mead, Muskego. He is also survived by two step-children, Jessica Feith and Corday Feith, Madison; as well as four grandchildren, George Bryant, Gordon Tillotson, Jessica Schultz and Jennifer Frisinger; four step-grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren. He is further survived by one sister, Mary LaMar, Madison. A brother, Gilbert Mead, preceded him in death. A celebration of life will be held in Wisconsin Rapids in the fall.

Online condolences may be made at www.gundersonfh.com.

Gunderson East

Funeral & Cremation Care

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