George Argue Putnam

September 7, 1935 - December 30, 2017

ABBEVILLE - Funeral services will be held on Saturday, January 7, 2017 at 1:00 PM in Vincent Funeral home, Abbeville, LA for George Argue Putnam, who died peacefully at his residence on Friday, December 30. The Reverend Annie Brown Etheredge, Rector at Episcopal Church of the Epiphany, will serve as the Celebrant.
George was born at Hotel Dieu in New Orleans, Louisiana on September 7, 1935, with his triplet sisters Ruth and Lise, to Ruth and Emmet P Putnam, Jr. of Abbeville. He graduated from McCallie Military School in Chattanooga, TN, and earned a Bachelor of Science Degree from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN.
Survivors include his wife Sylvia Brown Putnam and their three sons, their spouses, and four grandchildren, including Dr. George Putnam, Jr. of New Orleans, LA, Thomas Brown (Tommy) Putnam and his wife Delie Hagelin Putnam and their children Brown and Shelby, of Lafayette, LA, and John T Putnam, his wife Jennifer Kopp Putnam, and their sons Emmett and Brooks of Napa, CA. George was preceded in death by his parents Emmet, Jr. and Ruth Putnam, his sister Lise Putnam Liddell, and son Charles Simon Putnam.
Growing up in Abbeville, he developed a deep affection for this area and lived his full 81 years there. Abbeville is where he raised his family, made his friends and grew his businesses. He was an ardent outdoorsman. He loved to work, hunt, and fish, where he did all of them on international scale.
After graduating from Vanderbilt in 1958 he enlisted in the United States Marine Corp reserves. Afterwards, he returned home to join his father in the family business at Abbeville Lumber Company where he built fine homes, commercial buildings including the Bank of Erath and concrete rice bins that still stand in Abbeville and throughout the region. In 1967, he started building offshore living quarters. This vision would eventually become Abbeville Offshore Quarters which grew to have over 180 employees, a rental fleet of over 350 buildings and fabricating permanent quarters housing people offshore Israel, Nigeria, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Mexico, Trinidad and the Gulf of Mexico.
He never forgot his farming roots and enjoyed aquaculture. At one time he tried importing Australian crawfish, and enjoyed providing large crawfish from his two farms in Kaplan and Meaux to several local restaurants.
Mr. Putnam also had a long history of community involvement. Some of his affiliations included The Abbeville Kiwanis Club, where he was named Outstanding Kiwanian in 1967. He was Senior Warden of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, and sang in its choir. He was also noted for his prize-winning camelias.
Mr. Putman showed extreme determination and strength in living with Parkinson’s Disease for over 35 years, longer than anyone on record. Visitation will be observed at Vincent Funeral from 11:00 until 7:00 on Friday January 6, 2017 and on Saturday January 7, 2017 from 10:00 AM until time of the funeral service at Vincent Funeral Home at 1:00 PM. Burial will be at Graceland Cemetery in Abbeville. Following the burial will be a reception at the family home.
Pallbearers will be his nephews Ed Carter, Frank Liddell, Robert Liddell along with Daniel Gaspard, Gil Meaux, Josh Newman and Ritchie Theriot.
In lieu of flowers, a memorial gift may be made to St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, P. O. Box 1101, Abbeville, LA 70511, or Mt. Carmel Elementary School, 405 Park Ave, Abbeville, LA 70510.
Vincent Funeral Home of Abbeville, 209 S St Charles St, 337-893-4661, will be handling arrangements.