George L. Peabody, 88, an Episcopal priest who became an expert in organizational development for the church and through his own consulting firm, died Jan. 17 at his home in Beijing. He had pneumonia.
Dr. Peabody, the son and grandson of Episcopal ministers, spent much of his early career working for the church in New York. Within the church, he played a key role developing a national training program in human relations and organizational change.
He moved to Washington in 1980. As a private consultant with a focus on management development, his clients included corporations such as IBM and AT&T and federal agencies such as the Defense Department, the Environmental Protection Agency and the CIA.
He taught at more than 20 universities around the world and spent the 1990s and 2000s teaching courses on the influence of power and values in the workplace at the Institute on Business and Government Affairs, a summer educational program organized and sponsored by the Fund for American Studies at Georgetown University.
George Lee Peabody was born in Lawrence, Mass., and was the scion of an old New England family. His grandfather, the Rev. Endicott Peabody, was the founder and headmaster of the private Groton School in Massachusetts. George Peabody's late brother, Endicott "Chub" Peabody, was a Massachusetts governor and longtime Democratic Party leader.
Dr. Peabody was a 1942 graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He received a master's in divinity from Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Mass., and a doctorate in organizational behavior from what is now the Ohio-based Union Institute and University distance learning center.
During World War II, he served as gunnery officer in the Pacific and participated in the invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa.
He went to China for medical treatment last year.
Survivors include his wife, Alice Tian Peabody of Beijing and Washington; and two brothers, Samuel Peabody of New York and Malcolm "Mike" Peabody of Washington.
Thewashingtonpost.com