CANER, George Colket , Jr. , age 87, of Chestnut Hill died on June 21, 2013 from complications of leukemia. He leaves two sisters, Emily Parkman of Cleveland, OH and Lila Mehlman of Brookline, two daughters, Grace Grierson Offen of Newtonville and Sarah Hamilton Gaylord of Wenham, and one son, Daniel Folger Caner of Coventry, Connecticut, as well as six grandchildren. His wife, Judith Ann (Brentlinger), died in 2009. An expert litigator, sportsman, author, and fierce competitor in all he did, George lived a full and fortunate life. He attended Dexter School in Brookline and St. Mark’s School in Southborough, then fought in WWII as a forward observer for an artillery battery in the 95th Army division, during which he served as corporal and was awarded a bronze star. After graduating from Harvard College in 1946 and Harvard Law School in 1951, he practiced trial law as a partner of Ropes and Gray in a forty-year career that included several landmark victories, including the “Titicut Follies” case and defense of the Boston Athletic Association’s control of the Boston Marathon. He was a trustee of the Southborough School and Brookline Savings Bank and a member of the Boston Athenaeum and Thursday Evening Club. He also wrote four books: Battery Adjust and How the Allies Won the War (II) - Barely (1945 and 2006), histories of his WWII and field battery experiences), the History of the Essex County Club 1893-1993 (1995) and Going the Distance (2001), an account of his legal trials. But his chief passions were fulfilled on the tennis court, golf course and ski slopes. As a member of The Country Club in Brookline, Essex County Club in Manchester, and Kittansett Club, he won (together with his father, Wimbledon Semi-Finalist Colket Caner) the New England Father and Son Tennis Championship in 1950, as well as numerous club tennis and golf championships. Yet he was perhaps most proud of his accomplishments as a skier. A pioneering and life-long skier at Stowe, Vermont, in the last twenty years of his life he raced as a member of the New England division of the US Masters, winning in 2009 all save one of the events of his class – the downhill, the super G, the GS, and the combined, finishing second only in the slalom. A Memorial Service will be held on Thursday, June 27th at 11 AM, at the Church of the Redeemer, 379 Hammond Street, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.
SHARE OBITUARY
v.1.8.18