By the Family

Apr. 22, 2015:  It is with deep sadness that the family of George Fiencke announces the passing of their dear and gentle father, "Opa," brother, cousin, and uncle on Thursday, April 9, 2015, from heart failure, as a result of his declining health over the last several years. 

George was born in Lawrence Hospital in Bronxville on February 26, 1944, to parents Jean and Edward Fiencke, residents of Bronxville. He loved the Boy Scouts and spent many summers at various Boy Scout camps and jamborees, attaining the rank of Eagle Scout. 

George became a member of The Reformed Church of Bronxville during the early 1950s, and although his path in life took him to different states and countries, he retained a nonresident membership there until his recent death. 

George graduated from Amherst College in June of 1966, after which he was commissioned as an officer in the US Army and assigned to intelligence at Holabird Army Base before being re-assigned to Munich, Germany. 

Upon his return from Munich, George enrolled in the New Brunswick Theological Seminary in New Brunswick, NJ, where he received his master of divinity degree in May of 1975. He was ordained a month later by the Reverend Dr. Charles Copenhaver as a Dutch Reformed minister at The Reformed Church of Bronxville on June 23, 1975, the very first to be ordained in that church. 

George became minister of the Hampton Congregational Church in Hampton, CT, but returned to active military duty in 1987 as an army chaplain at Fort Meade, MD, attaining the rank of major. 

George had an almost lifelong love of numismatics, the study of currency. As a boy, he saved replicas of Confederate money enclosed in boxes of Cheerios as a promotion. From those replicas, he became a respected expert in this field and eventually analyzed and catalogued the Confederate money collection at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. 

A keen history buff and a master of Civil War trivia, George spent many happy years during his retirement participating in Civil War re-enactments throughout Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. 

George is terribly missed and deeply loved by his sons, Thomas and Jonathan (Beth) Fiencke, granddaughter, Sylvia Fiencke, sister, Ellen Fiencke Whitaker (Gary), cousins, Jacklyn Orlando, Susan Koch Morris (Bill), and Robert Koch, and nephews, Ralph and Charles Torello. 

George was buried at Quantico National Cemetery on Monday, April 20, 2015.