During his college years he thought deeply about entering the ordained Episcopal ministry, but chose instead to follow in his father’s footsteps and enter the inner sanctum of the Gallup Organization. There he labored until in 1977 when others stepped in to run the family business. While continuing to have a relationship with the parent organization, he started the Princeton Religion Research organization that explored not just the usual religious statistics, but plumbed into the depths of what people actually felt about their faith and how it translated into their lives. It served as a model for other such research organizations like the one George Barna founded with Gallup’s encouragement.
This period of his and his wife Kinny’s lives coincided with a remarkable spiritual transformation that led this dynamic duo into wholly new and uncharted territory. Through rediscovering the Gospel, especially within the context of small groups that met for Bible study and prayer, they recommitted their lives to Christ and began a whirlwind life of speaking, writing, sharing, and serving on countless boards that were dedicated to the furtherance of the Gospel.
Thanks Peter for this remembrance of George. I remember well his joyful nature and the friendliness to me of both George and Kinny when they came to Trinity for Board meetings. I was also blessed to have a night in their home as I traveled through Princeton in the early 1990s.