George Kirvin Floyd of St. George Island passed away on Feb. 20, 2025, in Tallahassee at age 67. George was born in Panama City on April 1, 1957, the second child of James “Jim” Theodore and Jeanette Kirvin Floyd and grandchild of George H. and Modell S. Kirvin and Albert B. and Margaret T. Floyd.
His roots in Franklin County ran deep, and his ancestors’ maritime heritage would influence the course of his life. George traced his paternal ancestry back five generations to the riverboat captain Samuel Augustus Floyd, who arrived in Apalachicola circa 1850.
George’s maternal grandfather, George H. Kirvin of Apalachicola, owned a successful seafood company during the height of the industry. George cherished childhood memories aboard his grandfather’s fishing fleet and time spent in boat yards, experiences that shaped his lifelong passion for boats. He took pride in his grandparents’ leadership in the founding of the St. George Island Baptist Church and that they had built one of the early homes on the island before it was connected to the mainland by the bridge.
George’s father was a state wildlife officer, and a promotion brought the family to Tallahassee when George was 5. His mother began a career in banking and real estate. George credited his parents for shaping his interest in the natural world as well as his business acumen. As a teenager he enjoyed riding horses with his family and was active in Future Farmers of America. Throughout his upbringing, he returned to Apalachicola and St. George Island often to visit grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.
A 1975 graduate of Leon High School, George began his higher education at the United States Military Academy at West Point. He transferred to the Florida State University, where as a student worker in the computer science lab he was known for writing so much code so quickly that he crashed the server. He earned a bachelor of science in accounting in 1982. During college, he spent free time helping his father construct his home on St. George Island by hand. His father became an active member of the growing island community and joined the St. George Island Baptist Church, strengthening George’s ties to the island.
After college, George joined the Atlanta accounting firm of Ernst and Young where he worked as an auditor and healthcare management consultant for almost a decade, making a home in Buford, Georgia, on Lake Lanier where he enjoyed boating and sailing. Through his work, he noted inefficiencies in hospital billing procedures, a problem for which he was inspired to devise a solution.
He turned a spare bedroom into an office, and with an idea, a computer, and tenacity he founded a healthcare IT company in 1991. HealthLogic Systems Corporation became a pioneer in automated billing for the healthcare industry. Under George’s leadership, the company became successful, and its expansion caught the attention of Bank of America, which purchased the company in 2007.
Combining technical abilities with love of the outdoors, George purchased the Buford Dam Store where he ran a kayak rental business on the Chattahoochee River that optimized efficiency with a unique online reservation system.
He then returned to his Franklin County roots, focusing his energy on a project he considered a fulfillment of his family legacy: reestablishing the latent Apalachicola Maritime Museum which his late father had been involved in launching. George was passionate about preserving his family’s heritage in the context of the area’s rich maritime history and saw ecotourism as an opportunity to share his conservation ethic. He enjoyed captaining excursions aboard the Heritage, a 58-foot wooden ketch he sailed down the Atlantic Coast from Brooklin, Maine. He established a boat building school within the museum which attracted visitors from all over the country and a robust boat tour program that educated passengers on the maritime and natural history of the Apalachicola River and Bay. He enjoyed hosting lecture series and other events at the museum.
He settled in his late father’s home on the island as his primary residence as he continued to expand the museum’s operations. In 2011, he arranged for a paddlewheel boat owned by the actress Debbie Reynolds to be donated to the museum and devoted several years to its restoration. The museum would thrive until Hurricane Michael damaged its riverfront building in 2018.
George was a lifelong investor in real estate. He was proud to have purchased his grandparents’ home in Apalachicola, where his father was raised and where he played as a child with his siblings and cousins. The house was built by his great-grandfather, Apalachicola riverboat captain Theodore Archibald Floyd. CVS attempted to buy the property to allow for an expansion of its adjacent store, planning to cut down several live oaks planted by George’s grandmother in 1922. Placing the winning bid at auction, George preserved this piece of family history.
He will be remembered for living an adventurous life. As an entrepreneur in the vacation rental industry, George purchased additional homes on St. George Island and Key Haven, and enjoyed traveling between them. He enjoyed travelling to other destinations such as South Africa, the Caribbean, Nantucket, and the West Coast and sailed from Key West to New England. He offered overnight sailing trips on his catamaran that departed from Stock Island, near Key West, and journeyed to the Dry Tortugas. During stays at his Buford, Georgia home, he often travelled to the mountains to go hiking. George was fond of quoting his favorite poet, Robert Service: “Adventure is the shining star I take to be my guide.”
In 2012, George and his then-fiancée Augusta Reynolds West welcomed a son, James Anderson Floyd. Of all his accomplishments, George was most proud of being a father. He shared his love of sailing, time spent outdoors, and travel with James and taught him to be proud of his family heritage. James will always be his best and brightest legacy.
George is survived by his son James Anderson Floyd; sister Jennifer Floyd Van Heusen; cousins Daphne (Richard) Davis, Stacey (Elizabeth) Kirvin, Ward (Christey) Kirvin, Albert (Mary) Floyd, Dee Emery, Cindy Emery Peters, Margaret Floyd Dornbrock, Linda Floyd Avant; his aunt Susan Kirvin Ogburn; friend and caregiver Chelsey Venrick; niece Amanda Brooke Floyd; sister-in-law Lacy Floyd, and many cousins and friends.
He is predeceased by his parents, James and Jeanette Floyd, brother James Christopher Floyd, and brother-in-law, Troy Van Heusen.
George’s wishes were to be buried at sea and for a memorial stone to be placed in the Magnolia Cemetery in Apalachicola. The burial at sea will be conducted in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Pompano Beach with the assistance of Kelley Funeral Home and Captain Brad White and crew on the Starlight 101.
A memorial service will be Saturday, March 8, at 10 a.m. ET at the First Baptist Church of St. George Island at 501 E. Bayshore Drive. Family is invited to gather at the church at 9 a.m.