George Corson Ellis Jr., entrepreneur, husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather, died peacefully Sept. 16 in New York City. His family said the cause was complications from cancer. An innovator who insisted on working for himself, Corson started in business buying a machine shop in Highlands and built Kessler Ellis Products into a multifaceted small manufacturer of electro-mechanical counters, then electronics, subsequently software. He founded Ellis Kuhnke Controls to make and distribute pneumatic controls with partners in Germany and Japan.
Sensing an opportunity in 1984 when a federal judge ordered the breakup of AT&T, he created Keptel which pioneered the network interface device seen on the outside of virtually every American house today. The company went public in 1987. He was an initial investor in Kepware Technologies, a software platform for manufacturing automation.
As an executive, Corson was known for his quiet leadership, calm under pressure and for employing a high percentage of women for his companies from the start.
Ellis was born March 13, 1929, in Chicago to George Corson Ellis and Roberta Thorne Ellis. Following his childhood in Lake Forest, Illinois, he graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy and from Yale College (1951) where he ran the 100-yard dash in 9.8 seconds, a leading time in the early 1950s. In 1951 he married Joan Ferguson who joined him in working for the Central Intelligence Agency. They settled in Atlantic Highlands, raised three children and in 1989 divorced amicably.
Later he married Constance C. Jewett who survives him, along with three children, Laura Ellis Bruckmann (Bruce), G. Corson Ellis III (Marion Freeman) and Kevin Ellis (Kimberly Hackett); two stepdaughters, Ellen Jewett (Richard Kauffman) and Hilary Jewett (Zeb Landsman); 12 grandchildren: Emilie Lee (Kristo Torgersen), Willa Lee (Eric Lampman), Linden Ellis (AJ Pisano), Francis Ellis, Jackson Ellis (Lisa), Phineas Ellis, Keenan Ellis, Freeland Ellis, Hannah Kauffman, Ezra Kauffman, Phoebe Landsman and Jonah Landsman; and five great-grandchildren.
A dedicated New Yorker, Corson, with Constance, also made annual visits to their home in Chilmark, Massachusetts, to Desbarats, Ontario and Bonnieux, France. He loved skiing en famille, fly fishing with his pals, diving reefs worldwide, reading voraciously, studying French, speaking German and lately patrolling his beloved Washington Square Park with his red walker. His was an upbeat life, informed by curiosity, generosity and love for his family and friends. An in-person memorial service will be scheduled when the pandemic abates. Gifts in his remembrance may be made to the Washington Square Park Conservancy at washingtonsqpark.org or LaGuardia Community College Foundation at foundation@lagcc.CUNY.edu.
The article originally appeared in the October 14 – 28, 2021 print edition of The Two River Times.
