Obituary for George Heinel
There were few things in life that George Heinel loved more than a good index. The inspection of a new book acquisition was a measured and careful process. Whether an old book found at one of the many used book sales he inhabited for decades or the rare occasion when he purchased a new printing, the review of the index always came first. And he owned and loved thousands and thousands of books through his years.
This man who was interested and fascinated by so much of the world was also staunchly a man of his time. A citizen of newspapers and radio and baseball. Though he politely refused any technology beyond the compact disc player, he was never stuck in the past. Just quietly disheartened by the racing present and the disquieting passage of common civility.
His love for jazz music and the times he lived it on 52nd St in New York as a young man shortly after WWII were always present in his memories and story telling. And the great times of taking the train on weekends to New York City and shopping on the once world famous and now non-extinct Book Row.
George gracefully outlived his closest friends that stuck together from grade school days until the very end. George and Bob Cordrey and Dick Little, who shared jazz outings in Wilmington, Philadelphia and New York as young men taking in all of the greats. Charlie Parker once walked off the small bandstand at one of the 52nd St haunts and turned to George at a front row table and asked him what time it was. Or the occasion when he had a conversation with Lester Young after a Count Basie performance at the Wilmington Armory. These unique moments lived in him as alive when they were joyously recounted as when they occurred.
A life-long resident of Wilmington, George loved the Philadelphia Athletics, cats, Reecie and other dogs, birds, books about books, sipping Jim Beam whiskey, his hundreds of jazz compact discs, 19th century baseball history, nature, his view of the great lawn outside of his final home, Delaware History and perhaps most of all-deep and passionate conversation with his closest friends regarding all the things they were passionate about.
A lifelong bachelor, George was a classic gentleman with a fierce yet quiet and dignified independence that he maintained to the end against almost all worldly obstacles. And George was privately generous in ways no one was to ever know.
The love of his life, Iona, preceded George in death by 20 years. George’s father, George Wesley Heinel died in 1928 from TB and on rare occasions he would quietly lament not having grown up with a father. His mother Elsie Treml Heinel died in 1964 and his beloved uncle John Paul Heinel died in 1972.
There will be no formal service.
In lieu of flowers please make a contribution to his favorite animal shelter, Faithful Friends Animal Society: https://faithfulfriends.us
This man who was interested and fascinated by so much of the world was also staunchly a man of his time. A citizen of newspapers and radio and baseball. Though he politely refused any technology beyond the compact disc player, he was never stuck in the past. Just quietly disheartened by the racing present and the disquieting passage of common civility.
His love for jazz music and the times he lived it on 52nd St in New York as a young man shortly after WWII were always present in his memories and story telling. And the great times of taking the train on weekends to New York City and shopping on the once world famous and now non-extinct Book Row.
George gracefully outlived his closest friends that stuck together from grade school days until the very end. George and Bob Cordrey and Dick Little, who shared jazz outings in Wilmington, Philadelphia and New York as young men taking in all of the greats. Charlie Parker once walked off the small bandstand at one of the 52nd St haunts and turned to George at a front row table and asked him what time it was. Or the occasion when he had a conversation with Lester Young after a Count Basie performance at the Wilmington Armory. These unique moments lived in him as alive when they were joyously recounted as when they occurred.
A life-long resident of Wilmington, George loved the Philadelphia Athletics, cats, Reecie and other dogs, birds, books about books, sipping Jim Beam whiskey, his hundreds of jazz compact discs, 19th century baseball history, nature, his view of the great lawn outside of his final home, Delaware History and perhaps most of all-deep and passionate conversation with his closest friends regarding all the things they were passionate about.
A lifelong bachelor, George was a classic gentleman with a fierce yet quiet and dignified independence that he maintained to the end against almost all worldly obstacles. And George was privately generous in ways no one was to ever know.
The love of his life, Iona, preceded George in death by 20 years. George’s father, George Wesley Heinel died in 1928 from TB and on rare occasions he would quietly lament not having grown up with a father. His mother Elsie Treml Heinel died in 1964 and his beloved uncle John Paul Heinel died in 1972.
There will be no formal service.
In lieu of flowers please make a contribution to his favorite animal shelter, Faithful Friends Animal Society: https://faithfulfriends.us