George Foot

George was a dreamer with a great vision, an expansive mind, clarity, confidence, and full of hope. From a letter to a friend: “As an adolescent I would frequently escape the burden of house and family and walk, often in deep winter, to a nearby park. There I’d shin my way up a friendly apple tree and watch the painfully brilliant stars rotate above me. Knowing nothing, understanding nothing, overwhelmed by the sheer beauty and grace of life. Then, with numbed fingers and toes, I’d trudge back … Yet, every time as I reached the crest of the hill and looked down at my parents’ house, I always felt an inexplicable warmth and gratitude that I never fully understood. Now I know that the stars, the cold night air, the porch light my mother always left on for me, conspired to awaken in me a compassion that whispered, ‘Yes, come home, come just as you are.’”

He led a short, complicated life full of diverse experiences. Academically trained as a historian, he wrote on topics ranging from history, science and health in Colonial America for the Encyclopedia Britannica, American History, World Financial Review and Medical Economics, among others. His comments on international markets appeared regularly in leading financial publications. He founded and was Chief Investment Officer of Cibola Investment Consultants and Newgate Management Associates.

George’s intense professional life was balanced by his great sense of responsibility, caring and generosity. As a young man during the War on Poverty, he worked in a Reservation to administer social programs. He was devoted to finding simple solutions to complex problems, such as the provision of clean water in under-developed communities and micro-financing programs to empower the poor with resources that allow them to build a future.

His short personal life was varied and complex. From his roots in Omaha to successful professional achievements in the sophisticated world of international finance, living abroad, wide international travel with a special place in his heart for Greece, writing poetry and prose, hobbies such as scuba diving, a food and wine connoisseur, a great love of animals, especially dogs. He was a true Renaissance man, who was as comfortable doing hard work with his hands or as an intellectual capable of synthesizing difficult issues across disciplines. He always recalled his early childhood experiences on his grandfather’s farm in Nebraska, where he first learned to work and be in awe of life. His formal education at the University of Nebraska, where he played football, and the University of Colorado, was just the start of a life of self learning. He was a gifted teacher and wise anchor to all who knew him, from his family and friends to those who admired him.

The George Foot Fund of the Fredy Rosenbaum Foundation was established upon George’s death. The Foundation serves as a way for the family to honor the lives and dreams of these two great men, who succumbed to brain cancer within a few months of each other. George was Fredy’s brother-in-law. He was the husband and business partner of Sonia, Fredy’s younger sister.