PRINCETON, N.J. — Pollster George Gallup Jr. has died in New Jersey, a year after being diagnosed with liver cancer, his family said Wednesday. He was 81.
Gallup, the son of Gallup Poll founder George Gallup, died Monday in Princeton, where he lived, according to his family.
The younger Gallup was born in Evanston, Ill., in 1930 and joined the family’s polling organization in 1954, a year after graduating from Princeton University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in religion.
He remained an executive in the company until he retired in 2004. While there, he pushed the polling agency into conducting surveys on religion and the views of youth.
He also wrote several books about Americans’ relationship with religion, including “The Next American Spirituality” in 2002 and “The Saints Among Us” in 1992.
After the polling organization was sold to Omaha, Neb.-based Selection Research in 1988, he founded the George H. Gallup International Institute in honor of his father.
There, he and his wife, Kingsley, who died in 2007, convened seminars by leaders in the fields of health, education, the environment, religion and values to talk about ideas to solve some of the problems the Gallup polling helped identify.
Gallup had three children.
A daughter, Alison Gallup, described her father as “an unusual guy, the warmest, most approachable person you ever met.”
He was an adult who had child-like curiosity — and a child-like love of Breyers ice cream, she said.
“He has left an incredible legacy of ethics,” she said. “I’ve never seen him do anything duplicitous.”
A memorial is set for Jan. 14 at 11 a.m. at Princeton Chapel.
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