Obituaries

A hard-charging champion of his hometown and his business, George Lester almost had his career cut as short as a piece of wood on his father’s lumber yard.

In high school, George was fired by his father, the legendary G. T. “Cap’n Til” Lester, when he wasn’t putting enough effort into his job sweeping the floor. George was making 15 cents an hour and appealed his firing, but Cap’n Til did not budge. He told George when he was committed to working hard, he could return to work.

Lester, who died Friday, January 31, 2025, at the age of 85, never forgot the lesson. He continued to work hard until his retirement as CEO of The Lester Group in 2018. If a business associate wanted to get George on the phone, he knew to call on Saturdays. George would be in the office.

Born April 4, 1939, Lester graduated from Martinsville High School and North Carolina State University, finishing second in his Industrial Engineering class. He started working full time in the family business in 1963.

A visionary, George saw the business, founded by his father in 1896, was going into decline. After buying stock from relatives, he became president in 1974 and never looked back.

He reorganized the company as The Lester Group and diversified into manufacture of treated lumber and doors, developed wholesale and retail building materials stores, bought forest land, and developed real estate—commercial, industrial and residential--in West Virginia, North Carolina and Virginia. Today, The Lester Group is one of the largest home-grown companies based in Martinsville. Lester Building Supply is the 122nd largest building supply dealer in the United States.

“If we did business the way we did 10 years ago, we’d be out of business,” George explained. “Survive, adapt and persevere sum up my business philosophy. I failed many times, but I tried again many more times. I always said, I didn’t know if it can be done, but I know it can’t be done if we don’t try.”

He was proud of continuing diversification and expansion of The Lester Group and its Employee Stock Ownership Plan, and the development of the Clock Tower Building. Built in 1898, the building was the largest plug tobacco plant in the world. The Lester Group bought the building from Tultex out of bankruptcy. Today, it is a symbol of Martinsville with approximately 1,000 jobs. George also was an organizer of Carter Bank, now with $5 billion in assets, a major lender for local residents to buy homes. The Bank employs 1,000.

“I have been focused on creating jobs in my hometown,” Lester continued. “Economic growth comes from jobs.”

George saw the advantages of Martinsville-Henry County being on the Interstate Highway System. “To be successful, a community needs a major airport, a university or to be on the Interstate system,” he often said. “Martinsville’s best chance was to be on an Interstate.”

In 1993, he founded JobLink, a committee of leaders from Franklin, Henry and Rockingham counties to get an interstate highway to connect Roanoke and Greensboro. As a result of the committee’s work, the future I-73 corridor was designated through Henry County. “We also can take some credit for I-73 in North Carolina, which stretches from the Virginia to South Carolina line,” he said.

George was a leader in the community, serving as chair of the United Way, the Martinsville-Henry County Chamber of Commerce, the Martinsville-Henry County Economic Development Corporation and a trustee of Memorial Hospital of Martinsville and Henry County. He received the Heck Ford Award, the highest honor given by the Chamber of Commerce.

In 2024, he committed $2.5 million to build a YMCA near Uptown Martinsville. As a result, the Martinsville-Henry County YMCA’s proposed building will be named The Lester Family YMCA.

In 2015, he created the Cap’n Til and Lottie Shelton Lester Fund at the Community Foundation Serving Western Virginia. The fund provides ongoing financial support to entrepreneurs and small business and educational organizations in the community, for college scholarships to Martinsville-Henry County students and to assist in transportation development. “The goal is to create economic growth in the community I love dearly,” he said at the time.

He gave land for civic causes, donated to charitable organizations and promoted the community constantly. When George called someone out-of-town, he’d always start the conversation, “George Lester, Martinsville.”

In business, he was chair of the National Lumber & Building Materials Dealers Association in 2015. He was a past president of the Independent Builders Supply Association, the Virginia Building Materials Association and the Virginia Forestry Association.

The Lester family moved from Tidewater to Henry County in the 1790s, settling in the Dyer’s Store area. George laughed when telling how the family supported the Indians, the British and the South in various wars. “We were on the losing side of each war,” he remembered.

His personal philosophy is summed up in Luke 12:48: “From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded.”

“God allowed me to be a steward of my family and my community,” George believed. “What matters is how I carried out my responsibility.”

In addition to his parents, George is preceded in death by his sons, George W. Lester, III and George W. Lester IV; and stepdaughter, Amie Leigh Cotton.

George is survived by his wife, Lee; daughters, Elizabeth Walsh of Lynchburg, Va., Ann Papadakis of Melbourne, Australia, and Sara Jedelsky, of Monroe, N.C.; stepdaughter, Tracy Turlington of Barboursville, Va.; mother-in-law, Ina Richmond; 11 grandchildren, and many other family members.

A visitation will be held from 12:00 pm to 2:00 pm on Saturday, February 15, 2025, at First Baptist Church of Martinsville. A funeral service will follow at 2:00 pm and will be officiated by Reverend John Fulcher and Reverend Steve Zimmerman. A private interment with family only will follow the service.

In lieu of flowers, the family ask that memorials be made to Mountain Valley Hospice, P.O. Box 325, Dobson, N.C. 27017 or to the charity of the donor’s choice.

McKee-Stone Funeral Home, Martinsville, Va. is serving the family.