George H. Ingram Jr., former Inquirer reporter, author, and public relations administrator at Temple, dies at 81

George H. Ingram Jr., 81, of Ocean City, a former public relations administrator at Temple University, Inquirer reporter, and author, died Sunday, Oct. 17, of complications from heart disease while on a hunting trip in Luzerne County, Pa.

A rugged outdoorsman and food connoisseur as well as an accomplished writer, Mr. Ingram won awards for his stories on fishing and hunting, wrote front-page articles and back-page features for The Inquirer and other publications, and worked under three Temple presidents during his 30-plus years on North Broad Street.

“We both loved to fish, and we spent some very exciting times together fishing on Great Bay near Tuckerton,” a friend wrote in an online tribute to Mr. Ingram. “I soon came to realize that I was in the company of that often-mentioned but rare commodity known as a Renaissance man.”

Mr. Ingram started at Temple in 1969 as an assistant to the vice president for university relations and retired in 2001 as associate vice president of that same department. He worked with Temple presidents Paul Anderson, Marvin Wachman, and Peter Liacouras, and represented the university on working trips to China, Israel, South Korea, Japan, Italy, England, and elsewhere.

He was Liacouras’ liaison to a Tyler School of Art graduate design class that created the new Temple “T” logo, and he helped orchestrate the change in format of Temple’s public radio station, WRTI-FM (90.1), from all-day jazz to daytime classical music and evening jazz.

He and two other contributors published Fishing the Delaware Valley in 1997, and he coauthored Jersey Lawman: Life on the Right Side of Crime with former U.S. Marshal Jim Plousis in 2019. In its review of his fishing book, Philadelphia Magazine called it “a well-written guide to sandwich joints in Eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey, with almost as much information about nearby fishing holes.”

An eclectic writer, Mr. Ingram wrote stories for The Inquirer, beginning in the mid-1960s, about cooking, farming, fishing, travel, Frank Rizzo, and many other topics. He also worked for the Press of Atlantic City and the Times of Trenton and was published even while he worked at Temple in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Pennsylvania Game News, JerseyMan magazine, New Jersey Federated Sportsman’s Clubs News, and the Fisherman magazine.

“Journalists say that colleagues leaving for jobs in public relations go ‘to the dark side,’” Mr. Ingram wrote in a short autobiography. “But [I] never lost a love of writing for newspapers and magazines.”

Born Dec. 15, 1939, Mr. Ingram graduated from Central High School in 1959 and from Temple in 1962. He married Charlotte Behlau, and they had daughter Pam and son George III. After a divorce, he lived for more than 40 years with his partner, Patricia Staub.

“Everything he did, he did at 100 percent,” Staub said. “He had a lot of heart.”

Mr. Ingram was a former trustee and publicity chairman of the Ocean City Fishing Club. A big man, he had a full-bodied laugh, liked to read history books, study Homeric Greek, and travel. He cooked at home every night, and Staub said, “It was never just meatloaf.” Oysters were one of his favorites.

Former Inquirer writer and editor Howie Shapiro called Mr. Ingram “a fascinating person to be around. He knew the world, and was a really nice guy.”

“He had a heart of gold,” Staub said. “He would do anything for anyone, and was always generous with his time.”

In addition to his partner, daughter, and former wife, Mr. Ingram is survived by two grandchildren and three sisters. His son died in 2018.

No services were held, at Mr. Ingram’s request.

Donations in his name may be made to the U.S. Marshals Survivors Benefit Fund, P.O. Box 11730, Bozeman, Mont., 59719, and Temple University’s Office of Institutional Advancement, 100 Sullivan Hall, 1330 Polett Walk, Philadelphia, Pa. 19122.