George Majkowski

George Majkowski
1929 - 2002

It saddens me to inform you of the passing of my good friend, colleague and mentor,
George Majkowski, on August 5th 2002.

Due to complications from treatments he was receiving for kidney disease,
he succumbed to an infection that quickly overcame his already weakened heart.
He died peacefully with family at his side.

George was born in Poland. While in his teens during World War II he was
captured by the Germans and sent to a labor camp. Upon liberation by
American troops he was adopted by them and learned to speak English in 3 months.

He then went to France; quickly learning the language, he was hired as an
interpreter. He also worked repairing electrical motors. He enjoyed visiting
the cabarets and hearing Django play. Guitar music became one of his joys in life.

He immigrated to the U.S. during the Korean war and was drafted into the
army. After the war he was given U.S. citizenship.

He began his career at IBM and soon became involved in the installation of
main frame computers throughout the world. His reputation as a brilliant
trouble shooter gained him the nick-name "Magic". It was during his
travels for IBM that he met his lovely wife, Anna.

Always with him was his guitar. He studied flamenco and would play
semi-professionally, backing singers and dancers. After he retired from
IBM, he turned his attention to building harpsichords and guitars. He
attended Richard Schneider's Lost Mountain Seminar for the Guitar in 1991.
He built his first Kasha guitar within a year's time. George became one of
Richard's assistants, bringing with him new ideas in construction and jig
design. After Richard passed away in 1997, George was instrumental in a
project of 10 guitars in tribute to Richard.

George and I worked closely together, completing the last three of Richard's
commissioned guitars. When his health prevented him from being at his workbench
he continued to provide ideas and insight into his love of guitarmaking.

"George ol' buddy, you'll be missed."
Jay Hargreaves

George & Jay
with "Mercedes"
Aug 2001

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