George Olmstead, successful executive search firm founder, dies at 81

George Olmstead couldn’t carry a musical note in a bucket, but he could dance his socks off — and did. His wife, Amanda, and he were always in the center of the dance floor at parties, their daughter Blake Olmstead-Mavrogeorgis said.

“He loved music, but he was tone deaf,” she said. “My younger brother and my sister and I, we’re all musical, but we got that from my mom. But dad was a great dancer, with wonderful rhythm.”

Born in Savannah in 1944, George Tracy Olmstead III was the son of George Tracy Olmstead Jr. and Julie Beckett Olmstead. He died Nov. 7 in Atlanta of complications from Alzheimer’s, surrounded by his family, his daughter said. He was 81.

“He was very self-aware, and he knew he had the disease. It was very frustrating for him,” she said. Her father lost motor skills and reached a point “where he could hardly get out the words he wanted to say. He hated having it. It made him pretty miserable.”

Olmstead-Mavrogeorgis said her father had always been quick with a quip and a witty remark. He could give a deadpan delivery and be sarcastic and was capable “of turning any dark moment into something lighthearted. He was just hilarious,” she added.

A graduate of private schools in Savannah, George Olmstead attended the University of Georgia, where he joined his father’s fraternity, Kappa Alpha. While in high school, he had excelled in several sports; at Georgia, he played on intramural squads and was a walk-on for the UGA basketball team his freshman year. His stepfather recommended he go to law school, so he earned a law degree.

With his degree in hand, he headed to C&S Bank’s training program in Atlanta, where he met and then married his first wife, Lilla Calhoun. They had three sons. He became an officer for C&S and was transferred to Savannah. One of the loans he made was to antiques dealer Jim Williams, made famous in “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.”

He helped provide insurance to homes on Amelia Island and was subsequently recruited by insurance broker Johnson & Higgins and moved to Atlanta. While attending the Atlanta Steeplechase, he met Amanda Brown, whom he married. They had two daughters and a son.

George’s culinary repertoire was limited but delicious, family members said. When Blake and her brother Jamie were little, their dad would make them French toast on Saturday mornings, or the family would walk to the Original House of Pancakes for breakfast. He also made a mean peanut butter-mayonnaise-banana sandwich, they said.

His family remembers his love for his alma mater, the University of Georgia, and the Bulldogs football team.

In the late 1970s, a new career opened for Olmstead. He met Brian Blackshaw, and the two men launched Blackshaw Olmstead, an executive search firm, one of the few in the metro area. It later became Blackshaw, Olmstead, Lynch, and Konig LLC, which handled clients not just in Atlanta and the Southeast but all over the world.

Working there was her father’s favorite job, said Blake — whom her father called Cakes. He then pivoted to Olmstead, Lynch and Curtis, another executive search firm. He retired in 2021 after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.