Obituary of George Marvin Leavitt Jr., 79 

– George Marvin Leavitt, Jr. 79 of Paso Robles, California lost his short battle with cancer and passed away peacefully at home surrounded by his family on April 21, 2025.

George was born in Tuba City, Arizona on a Navajo reservation to Lorene Leavitt while his father, George, Sr. was overseas fighting in WW2. He was the 3rd of 4 children, with 3 daughters and George being the only son. He grew up in Phoenix, Arizona until the age of 5. A caption on a picture of him as a young child in March of 1948 shows him standing happily in the family kitchen with a gauze-wrapped hand after an accident with a saw and says “Wet pants, candy on face, and sawed off hand.”

He really only had an almost sawed off finger that they were able to stitch back on, the scar of which he carried his whole life. His family moved to Reedley, California around 1950. His mother was working on her speech therapy degree when he was in his early teens and he learned how to cook under her tutelage as she sat at the kitchen table doing homework and talking him through the dinner making process.

His summers in high school were filled with working in the fruit packing houses and in the many crop fields surrounding Reedley. One week he and his best friend worked night and day and made nearly $100 and they thought they had it made for life! He graduated from Reedley High in 1963. He started college at Fresno City College and then served a mission in Brazil for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints from 1964-1966. Following his mission, he attended Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah where he met and married the love of his life, his forever sweetheart, Annette Ward.

George was devoted to his family. His wife, Annette, was the love of his life and his eternal companion. George and Annette met at Brigham Young University on a blind date on Nov 18, 1966. This first date was a blind date to a university ball and Annette learned that night that George had spent 7 years in competitive ballroom dance. Annette wrote in her journal about that night, “I had so much fun that I hoped the night would never end.”

One day in the following weeks after they met, George, trying to get a hold of another girl he was dating, Ardith Watson, accidentally dialed Annette Ward’s number because they were in the same place in the directory. Annette answered and recognizing George’s voice when he asked for Ardith, curtly answered,”No, Ardith is not here!” George, chagrined, hung up quickly, realizing what he had done. But he soon found that Annette was up to par with him when she called his apartment back and asked for an old boyfriend that George knew about when he answered the phone.

It was the beginning of the beautiful dance of their lives together. They were eager to start sharing their lives and were married exactly one year after that first date on Nov 18, 1967.

George and Annette were the best team ever in raising their seven children, Carol (Allen) Robins, Tamara (Jonathan) Nelson, Aaron Leavitt, Rebecca (Lon) Young, Kurt (Michelle) Leavitt, Michele (Mark) Lafferre,and Adele (Josh) Aston. George enjoyed spending time with his children and grandchildren: bouncing them on his knee when they were young, singing with them, taking them fishing, having them help in the house and with yard projects.

George was a hard worker and taught his children and grandchildren how to work hard, too. His children and grandchildren loved his sense of humor, his playfulness and his ability to always let you know that he loved you. George was the Dad everyone wished they could have. He helped his children with their science projects, homework assignments, dropped them off at high school (making sure they always had some lunch money), drove them to endless sports and activity practices, shared his love of the outdoors by taking them camping every year and attended years of sporting events and activities, always cheering them on and supporting his children and grandchildren in all of their pursuits.

After George got his Ph.D. he and Annette took on an early morning paper route to help with the cost of their children going to college and serving church missions. His children used to tease him that he was the only person with a doctorate throwing a paper route but this is just another example that George and Annette were willing to do whatever was needed to care and provide for their 7 children.

George loved ballroom dancing and competitively danced while in high school. He and Annette continued to ballroom dance their way through life together and loved big band music and music from their high school and college years. Many nights at home, they could be found dancing in their kitchen and as the years passed, teaching some dance steps to their children and grandchildren.

George loved reading all types of novels but especially loved history and documentaries about World War II, maybe because he was born while his father was serving in World War II and his dad found out he had a son via a war telegram. George was a storyteller, a joke teller, and a keeper of random facts. He could tell you how a maraschino cherry was made, could name any crop being grown in the fields of California, and regaled boy scouts and his own children and grandchildren by reciting the poem, “The Cremation of Sam McGee.”

George loved to teach. Whether it was a classroom of college students pursuing their own PhDs at Fresno State, a room full of the grape growers from the San Joaquin Valley, preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, or teaching his children, he taught with clarity and wisdom and always with a little bit of humor. He had a sense of humor that could catch you off guard. He loved people, could start a conversation with anyone, never met a stranger, and could have anyone laughing within minutes of meeting them.

George had a warm and caring personality, always willing to help someone out physically, by helping with a yard project, a woodworking project, a repair, loading a moving van or serving a meal at the local homeless shelter. He was known for his hard work and endless energy. He did much of the work on an addition of a new master bedroom to their family home in Madera and he could fix anything on the house or the cars.

He planted a large thriving garden every year and he and Annette canned salsa, tomatoes, pickled beets, peaches, apples, pears, apricots and made berry and fruit jams from the fruits of their labor. He built cradles and play kitchens for his kids and benches that were used for years around our dining room tables. On family car trips, Annette and George taught their children to sing rounds and the addition of his beautiful baritone voice made the family sound like the Von Trappe Singers.

Education was a lifelong pursuit for George. He graduated with his Bachelor of Science degree in Botany in 1970 and began working for the University of California, Kearney Ag Research and Extension Center in Parlier, California as a staff research assistant(SRA) for 3 years. While working full time, helping to care for a growing family, and volunteering time at church, he completed a Master’s Degree in Botany and Statistics in 1976, all this possible only because of the support of his loving partner in everything, Annette.

In 1975 George and Annette moved to Madera, California where George began his career working for the University of California Cooperative Extension Service as a farm advisor where he oversaw table, raisin and wine grapes for the next 31 years. He was one of the first UC farm advisors to return to school and begin a Phd program and received his Doctorate in Plant Pathology in 1990 from UC Riverside. He completed his doctoral and thesis research on Botryosphaeria, a fungus that causes disease in grapevines.

George was responsible for discovering that Eutypa dieback was caused by 2 different fungi, Botryosphaeria and Eutypa, when they were previously thought to be one. Following this discovery and completing his Ph.D., he was the regional pathologist for the Central Valley area and was recognized all over the United States and in other grape-growing countries world wide for his work and research. He traveled to grape pathology conventions, presented his research, toured grape vineyards, solved pathology problems, made connections, and offered his expertise to grape growers all over the world.

George was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints his entire life. He served a 2 year full time mission as a 19 year old in Brazil and spent years working as a scout master and with the church’s young men’s program. He managed the church’s 80 acre vineyard in Madera for many years and served in LDS church leadership as a Bishop and on the high council. After George’s retirement from the University, George freshened up his Portuguese and Annette taught herself to speak fluent Portuguese while they served 2 additional full time temple service missions together in Brazil in Recife and Porto Alegre for nearly 4 years. He and Annette continued to serve monthly in the Fresno and Los Angeles temples for the last 20 years. His love of the temple and the eternal sealing covenants made there were of utmost importance to him.

George had a short fight with an aggressive lymphoma with the first symptoms starting just 14 weeks before his death. He was hopeful until the end and told us he was going to fight it until it took him. But after 2 week-long chemotherapy and immunotherapy regimens given 4 weeks apart, 2 brain surgeries, multiple lumbar puncture chemotherapy treatments, endless infusions of blood products, antibiotics, blood thinners and so many other products and medications to help his body fight the cancer, and a week at a rehabilitation center trying to gain the strength to walk again, it became evident that he was not going to win this battle.

George knew what he wanted his whole life and the end was no different. When he woke up in the hospital the morning after being moved to palliative care he asked, “Why am I still here (in the hospital?) I want to go home.” So Adele arranged for a private transport to drive him home to Paso Robles and Carol called hospice who had all the equipment and medication delivered and had a hospice nurse waiting to meet him when he arrived at home later that day. He repeated many times – “No tears, I have lived a good life”. Less than 2 days later, George Marvin Leavitt, Jr. 79 of Paso Robles, California passed away peacefully at home surrounded by his family on April 21, 2025.

He was preceded in death by his parents, George Marvin and Lorene Pace Leavitt and his sister, Deanna Newman. He is survived by his wife, Annette Ward Leavitt, his 7 children and their spouses, 36 grandchildren, 6 great-grandchildren and his 2 sisters, Dorothy Jones and Janet Cziuzas.

His family couldn’t have asked for a better husband, father or grandfather and his absence has left a hole in our lives and our hearts. He was the husband, father and grandfather that everyone wishes they had. George ran life’s race with great strength, courage, dedication, integrity, wisdom and compassion. He was a great friend and mentor to anyone that crossed his path. His memory will live on in the hearts of everyone who knew him.

Viewing at 10 a.m., Service at 11 a.m.

2600 Ramonda Road, Atascadero, CA. 93422

Graveside Dedication, Wed May 7, 2025

Paso Robles District Cemetery

45 Nacimiento Lake Drive

Paso Robles, CA. 93446

 

---

The Paso Robles Daily News accepts and publishes local obituaries and death notices free of charge from individuals and local funeral homes. See information and tips here on writing an obituary. Please submit the obituary a few days before services, if possible. To submit an obituary, please email it to skye@accesspublishing.com with “obituary” in the subject line. Please email a photo along with the obituary.