George McWhorter made quite an impression when he arrived in Louisville in 1972. The University of Louisville had maintained a rare book collection for years, but George was the university's first professionally trained rare books librarian. He brought impressive credentials from the University of Michigan; he also brought his collection of British illustrator Arthur Rackham. George was young and active, riding a bicycle to work a longer distance than anyone else in Louisville ever thought of doing. He also was brilliant, witty, fluent in several languages, passionate about his work, and immediately influential among literary and bookish people in Louisville.

Louisville discovered more facets of the new Curator of Rare Books. Trained as an opera and concert singer, George had begun his career as a boy soprano in the choir of the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. Later, as a baritone, George earned degrees in voice from Florida Southern College and the Eastman School of Music before studying in Paris with Nadia Boulanger and Pierre Bernac. Once in Louisville, his voice recovered from the gout, he sang as a principal with the Kentucky Opera Association, at recitals - many as benefits for the University and its library - and as soloist for the First Church of Christ, Scientist.

George was a mentor, teacher and champion, and friend to all who worked with him at the University of Louisville. He also had been a major donor to University of Louisville. Since his first gift of the aforementioned Arthur Rackham Collection in 1974, he has regularly diverted a substantial portion of his salary to enhance the university's rare book collection, and to create other significant collections: Danish author Isak Dinesen, Victorian boys' author G.A. Henty, and turn of the last century fine press publisher Thomas Bird Mosher.

George's most celebrated collection is the Edgar Rice Burroughs Memorial Collection, which he developed as a tribute to his mother Nell Dismukes McWhorter, who taught him to read when he was just five years old. "She tried everything," George recalls, "Dickens, Dumas... but when she got to Burroughs, I was hooked!" The largest institutional collection of Burroughs in the world, this vast and comprehensive collection of rare editions, toys, posters, games, photographs, and film  attracted scholars and fans to the University of Louisville for more than thirty years.

In 1986 George was named Curator of the Edgar Rice Burroughs Collection, a fitting title for a man who has furthered scholarship, preserved unique treasures, and brought worldwide attention to Burroughs. Looking toward the future, George  established an endowment to provide continuous support for the Edgar Rice Burroughs Memorial Collection. In 2008, he designated a bequest for an endowed chair and curatorship. He also worked with Burroughs Bibliophiles on their own gifts and bequests.

School children and freshmen students, international scholars and documentary film makers, fans and friends of Edgar Rice Burroughs, all treasure memories of their trips "into the jungle," with George leading tours of the permanent exhibits in the Edgar Rice Burroughs Memorial Collection. His friends recall George hauling in synthetic grass to create a jungle floor, painstakingly arranging each artifact and vacuuming the area to ready it for visitors, working - fueled only by coffee - for days and nights on indexes, and painting the teeth of a model dinosaur to make a more accurate representation.

Over the years George devoted a tremendous amount of time and personal resources to the publishing of a new series of quarterly Burroughs Bulletins as well as the monthly newsletter: The Gridley Wave. George gave ERBzine permission to release electronic versions of all his Gridley Waves and to reprint all these zines back to Issue No. 1. George's Burroughs Bulletin was a gorgeous slick magazine with each issue devoted to an ERB title.

After reaching the end of Burroughs titles the BB Board of Directors decided that perhaps the daunting task of publishing these magazines and newsletters on such a regular basis should be turned over to a younger man. The job was taken over by Henry Franke.

Leaving this labour of love that he had invested so many thousands of dollars and man-hours over decades was exceedingly difficult, but he prided himself in the quality and regularity of these hundreds of publications which had brought countless ERB devotees to the fold.

The Burroughs Collection is comprehensive in scope and significance, a source of pride and inspiration, but Curator George McWhorter, with his affection for each of the hundreds of thousands of objects, and bone deep knowledge of every detail, makes it magical.

George was well known by other ERB enthusiasts starting off their yearly banquets with his famous call of the bull mangani! It always brought a unified responding call from the gathered clan.

In 1999, he served as the subject matter expert for the animated Tarzan film by Disney. No one was more well versed on everything Tarzan than George McWhorter!

George belonged to many societies – The Sons of the American Revolution and The Society of Lees of Virginia, among others. His 4th great-grandfather was Richard Henry Lee, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He was enormously proud of his heritage and began researching his ancestral lines many years ago and then passed on his research and old letters and photos to his niece, Dr. Patricia Petitt, who was then able to continue the research and publish The Descendants of David McWhirter & Mary Posten (3 vols.), The Turberville Family of Virginia (2 vols.) and Hannah! the latter publication was donated to Stratford Hall Museum Store in Westmoreland County, Virginia.

Surviving George are his nieces and nephews, William Raymond Brown, III, Patricia Lynn (Brown) Petitt, Richard Thornton Brown, Sr., Mark Carter Brown, Kristin Jeanne (Brown) King and Kelley Marie (Brown) Johnson. Also, his first cousins, Harriet Lee (Howell) Burgess and Robert Lesly McWhorter, Sr. He has many cousins, grand nieces and nephews not named in his obituary.

George desired to be cremated and his remains placed in an urn his sister made for him with Tarzan swinging in the trees! This urn became a part of his beloved ERB collection at the University of Louisville, Rare Books Collections.