George Thrush Obituary

Thrush III, George H.

THRUSH, George H. III, Reshaped Lincoln Park in the 1960s-70s

George H. Thrush III (age 97) passed away peacefully, in the presence of family, on July 17, 2025, at the Presbyterian Homes in Evanston, IL after years of declining health. Born to George H Thrush Jr. and Besse Dorsey Thrush in New Orleans, LA, George grew up in Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and finally Gettysburg, PA. He was the older of two brothers and went to Gettysburg High School, and later, after enrolling in the Navy at the end of World War II, he studied Mathematics at Gettysburg College.

After college he learned marketing for a dairy company in Philadelphia and eventually took a sales position at IBM. After moving to the company's Endicott, NY office in 1955, he met Mary McLean, and they were married in 1957. In 1959, after the birth of their first child (George IV) the young family moved to Chicago to begin their lives there. They remained in Chicago for the rest of their lives, married for 62 years, until Mary died in 2019 at the age of 89.

While Mary left IBM to raise her young family (Blair was born in 1960 and Annie in 1964), George remained at IBM and rose in the ranks to serve as Chief Marketing Officers for the Chicago Office for the firm. He remained at IBM until 1980, though from the very beginning, he was also working in real estate development with an eye toward acquiring more property.

The list of real estate projects that he developed grew quickly and he took advantage of the country's desire to reinvest in cities through tax incentives to build his early portfolio. In 1968, he bought eight run-down Victorian rowhouses backed up the CTA elevated train tracks, tuned them into 2–3-unit rental buildings that kick-started a major transformation of the DePaul area.

Throughout the 1970s he purchased several more properties in the growing West Lincoln Park area and began to expand toward what is now called River North, where he moved his office, now known as The Thrush Companies, into a building on West Chicago Avenue. He was purchasing ever larger buildings now, and many held 20-40 units each. At this point he began to build new construction, from the ground up, rather than renovation projects. He was now working in Lakeview, what was later known as Wrigleyville, and expanding to more areas throughout the 1980s. By the 1990s, he had expanded the scope of his development to the suburbs, including Forest Park, Oak Park, Glen Ellyn, and River Forest.

Chicago remains a better place for the quality, consistency, and scale of his efforts. In addition to his success in real estate, George enjoyed endless hours on the tennis courts and the Lincoln Park jogging path, endless walks and swims with Mary, and his regular drives in his various sports cars around Chicago.

George Herbert Thrush III is survived by his son George Herbert Thrush IV and his daughters, Elizabeth Blair Thrush Lele (and husband Milind Lele) and Annie Thrush Newman (and husband James Newman); his grandchildren Alexander Thrush, Hugh Lele, Alice Lele, Elizabeth Lele, Leila Newman and Piper Newman and several nieces and nephews.

To view the full obituary, please go to George's obituary page at donnellanfuneral.com.

Funeral Service 11:00 am Tuesday, August 12, 2025, at St. Chrysostom's Episcopal Church, 1424 N. Dearborn St., Chicago, IL 60610. Reception immediately follows.

Info: 847.675.1990.

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