George Norman Tuthill, a Montauk native who began a career in the emerging field of computer technology in his early 20s and would go on to work for I.B.M., MAI Computing, Amdahl, and Motorola, died on Aug. 22 in Jupiter, Fla. He was 88.
Described by his family as “hard-working, entrepreneurial, and determined,” Mr. Tuthill “rarely sat still and had a gift for turning hard work into opportunity,” they said.
He was born at Southampton Hospital on Feb. 17, 1938, to Florence and Edwin Tuthill, and grew up in Montauk. At East Hampton High School, he met Alice Peterson, who became his high school sweetheart, and in 1958, his wife.
When he was just 15, Mr. Tuthill was already working on fishing boats, clamming, and setting traps for fur, “which he sold to New York garment dealers,” according to his family.
He enlisted in the Navy after high school and served as an electrician’s mate aboard the U.S.S. Stormes, a destroyer. “His leadership, technical ability, and determination quickly distinguished him,” his family said. He left the Navy four years later, having attained the rank of chief petty officer, and entered the computer field.
He joined I.B.M. as a field engineer and advanced into increasingly senior leadership positions, then moved to MAI, where he was a regional vice president and ultimately senior vice president responsible for computer service and field engineering. At Amdahl, a competitor of I.B.M. in the mainframe computer industry, he became national director of service for large mainframe computer systems. His final position before retiring in 2002 was as an executive overseeing services and field engineering for Motorola.
“George was a self-made man whose drive and determination were matched only by his curiosity and enthusiasm for life,” his family said.
Outside of the corporate world, he fished. He earned his six-passenger Coast Guard captain’s license at 17, intending to run a party boat out of Montauk after his time in the Navy. After his retirement, he renewed the license and revisited that dream. He had the first saltwater fly-fishing charter business in San Diego Bay, according to his family, spoke regularly on local fishing radio shows there, and wrote frequently for fishing magazines.
“He loved tying his own flies, studying the water, matching the hatch, and figuring out how to put his clients on fish,” his family said. “For George, fishing was never simply about catching a fish. It was about understanding the water, the conditions, the equipment, and the challenge. He was always learning, always experimenting, and always looking for the next opportunity to improve.”
“Fishing may have been his lifelong passion, but Alice was always the center of his world,” his family said, and he “had a remarkable ability to make friends wherever he went,” with his “quick wit, infectious charisma, funny stories, and genuine interest in people.”
Mrs. Tuthill survives, as does a son, Gregory Tuthill, and his wife, Tracey Tuthill, and a daughter, Cynthia Waldman, and her husband, Russell Waldman. He also leaves a brother, Edwin B. Tuthill, and four grandchildren and one great-grandson.
A memorial service will be held on Feb. 19 at South Florida National Cemetery in Lake Worth.
His family has suggested memorial contributions to the Tunnels to Towers Foundation, online at t2t.org.
