Columbia, Maryland

Brigadier General George Baker Price (US Army, Ret.) peacefully passed away at home in Columbia, Maryland, on Sunday morning, November 17, 2024, of cancer that presented one month before his death. He was born August 28, 1929, in Laurel, Mississippi, to James and Katherine Price; his sister Leontyne was born two years earlier.

He attended Oak Park High School and South Carolina State College (SCSU, now University), graduating in 1951 with a Bachelor of Science in Education. He was a distinguished military graduate and was commissioned in the Regular Army as a Second Lieutenant in the Infantry Branch of Service.

In 1954, he married Georgianna (née Hunter), who became a devoted army wife.

They shared 51 years of marriage before her death in 2006. Together, they had four children: Katherine (Benny Dukes), James (Donna), William (Soney), and Robert (Barbara).

In 2009, he married Dr. Laura G. Kafka, a performing artist, musician, and language educator formally of Monterey, California. They delighted in 15 years of marriage.

The large family includes twelve grandchildren, sixteen great-grandchildren, sister Leontyne Price, and brother-in-law Leonard W. Kafka (Sharon), formally of Monterey, California. He was predeceased by George Hunter, Jr. General Price’s military career spanned over twenty-seven years of dedicated service to our nation until his retirement in 1978.

He attended the Infantry Officers Basic Course of Instruction at Fort Benning, Georgia.

He was assigned to Company L, 179th Infantry Regiment in Korea. He was wounded and evacuated in the Battle for Old Baldy. He was subsequently assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 11th Infantry Regiment at Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania. He was then assigned to Specialist Training Regiment Fort Dix, New Jersey. His next assignment was attending the Infantry Officers Advanced Course at Fort Benning, Georgia. It is noteworthy that General Price also attended Airborne (Parachutist) and Ranger Schools, where he was awarded the coveted Parachutist Badge and Ranger Tab.

After completing the Infantry Officers Advanced Course, General Price was assigned to the 15th Ordinance Battalion (a Nuclear Weapons Depot Battalion). He was then assigned to the 2nd Armored Division at Fort Hood, Texas, followed by an assignment to Vietnam, where he served with the 1st Infantry Division of the Vietnamese Army.

After Vietnam, he was selected to attend the Army Command and General Staff College followed by an assignment to the Office of the Chief of Reserve Components at the Pentagon in Washington, DC. General Price also served as a Force Analyst in the Office of the Assistant Vice Chief of Staff of the Army.

General Price was assigned from the Pentagon to command the 4th Battalion (Mechanized), 20th Infantry, 193rd Brigade in the Panama Canal Zone. He was later assigned as the Deputy Chief of Staff, U.S. Southern Command, Fort Amador, Canal Zone. While he was assigned to Panama, he was selected to attend the Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

While attending the Army War College, Price attended graduate school at Shippensburg State College (now university) in Pennsylvania, earning a master's degree in counseling psychology.

From Pennsylvania, General Price was assigned as Commander 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division in Aschaffenburg, Germany. His next assignment was Chief of Staff, 8th Infantry Division, Bad Kreuznach, Germany. It was while he was in this assignment that he was selected for promotion to Brigadier General with an assignment as Assistant Division Commander 1st Armored Division in Nuremberg, Germany. General Price served concurrently as Military Community Commander in both Aschaffenburg and Nuremberg, Germany. General Price’s last active-duty assignment was as Chief of Staff, First US Army, Fort George G. Meade, Maryland.

His decorations included the Legion of Merit, Bronze Star, Air Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Purple Heart, Parachutist Badge, Ranger Tab, and Combat Infantryman Badge with Star.

After he retired from active duty, General Price worked in the telecommunications industry, technical engineering, and as a sought-after consultant. He was affiliated with many civic organizations. General Price was a 76-year member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc In 2018, the Board of Trustees of the Army War College Foundation selected him as an "Outstanding Alumnus of the Year of the Army War College" for his "… incredible contributions to our nation following his military retirement." He was extremely proud of his association with the Vietnam Veterans Memorial ("The Wall") in Washington, DC.

In 2023, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (builders of "The Wall") honored General Price with a"Lifetime Service Award" for his more than 40 years of dedicated advocacy, which resulted in building the memorial. For the past 42 years, including Veterans Day 2024, he attended every Veterans Day ceremony at“The Wall” except two. He delivered remarks at “The Wall” and other VVMF events on several occasions. General Price and his wife, Dr. Laura Kafka-Price, had the pleasure of appearing on two programs together.

He was equally passionate about supporting his sister Vietnam veterans, including nurses and all women involved in the conflict. When he learned of the fierce opposition to the Vietnam Women’s Memorial, he immediately aligned himself with Captain Diane Carlson Evans, ANC RVN (US Army, Ret.) and supported her efforts to have the Vietnam Women’s Memorial built.

While growing up in segregated Laurel, Mississippi, his aspiration was to serve his country. He played football in high school and college and led Oak Park High School to two state football championships. He subsequently attended college on an athletic scholarship and joined the ROTC program his freshman year. While at SCSU, he was an all-conference quarterback and led the conference in rushing for his position; he also punted and was captain of the team at both alma maters. Coach Oliver C. Dawson at SCSU often said Price “understood the game so well that he was like acoach on the field himself. He applied what he learned in practice during the week to the game on Saturday.”

In 2023, his alma mater, SCSU, honored him with a gala black-tie event. Together with the Chisholm Foundation in his hometown, SCSU established four ROTC student scholarships in his name. General Price was the first graduate from South Carolina State University's ROTC program who rose to the rank of Brigadier General from the Bulldog Brigade.

After his sister, the legendary Leontyne Price, retired from singing on the opera stage in 1985, her brother became her personal manager. He traveled with her throughout the country as she maintained her recital career until she retired from active singing in 1997. He continued to manage all aspects of her career.

Both General Price and his sister credit their parents, James, a worker at the Eastman-Gardiner Lumber Mill, and Katie, a prominent midwife, for their success. Their parents, along with Saint Paul Methodist Church (one of the prominent black churches in Laurel), the teachers at Oak Park, and the patriotic community contributed to the exceptional Americans that they became. General Price often said that Laurel offered the best of what small towns in America are all about.

Brigadier General Price will be laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery at a date to be announced.

The family has requested that, in lieu of flowers, donations In Memory of BG George B. Price be made.

Full obituary and donation instructions can be found at: www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/columbia-md/george-price-12079803