-The Final Final-
A Celebration of Gregory Ledford
A Celebration of Gregory Ledford
1957 - 2021
Our dad didn't live a cookie cutter life and he never would have wanted a cookie cutter funeral so that's not what we're doing. Please join us as we celebrate his life with the stories, memories, and jokes that made him uniquely Greg. A reception will follow with an opportunity to enjoy each other's company the way he would have wanted.
Gregory Scott Ledford
Born in Falls Church in 1957 to Davis and Bernice, Greg was an Eagle Scout when he graduated from Marshall High School. If he were writing this, it is at this point that he’d make a remark like “guess they didn’t have a high bar for the Eagle Scouts back then”. He set off for the University of Virginia in 1975 where he met Nancy Coates in his first year. He graduated from the McIntire School in 1979 and married Nancy one year later.
Together they moved to Middletown, Ohio where Greg began his professional life at the Armco Steel Factory. Armco later brought him back to Baltimore, Maryland and eventually to a job at MCI Telecommunications rising to become the Director of Capital Leasing where he was responsible for more than $1 billion of leveraged lease financing.
Greg & Nancy moved to Burke Centre, Virginia in 1983 where they welcomed a baby girl, Emmy, three years later. In 1988 Greg began work at a small “merchant banking firm specializing in buying and selling companies” - The Carlyle Group. As employee number eleven, without “any money under management” the early years were anything but a sure thing, but Greg grew along with Carlyle, ultimately heading the Industrial & Automotive Group and leading the firm’s investments in Allison Transmission, AxleTech International, Hertz, and Horizon Lines among others or as he put it: “sexy assets such as a garbage truck company and a container ship line”.
In 1990 son Alan was born and the family was complete. In 1991 they made the move to Vienna and shortly thereafter Greg became CEO of a Carlyle portfolio company, the Reilly Corporation, and quickly developed a special fondness for the smell of Sprayway glass cleaner.
By 1995 the family got just a little more complete with the addition of beloved dog Maddy and a year later Greg found himself writing an annual Christmas letter and as he put it he only had “one thing left that I said I’d never do...buy a mini-van”. The annual family Christmas letters always held common refrains: pride in Emmy and Alan’s accomplishments, excitement about shared travels, a healthy dose of self-deprecation, and gratitude for Nance’s parenting (and genes).
Over the years Greg served on numerous corporate boards including Hertz, Allison, and HD Supply as well as on the Board of Trustees of the McIntire School at UVA and numerous charitable organizations. He always believed in giving back, and became very active in MCE Social Capital, So Others May Eat, Waterboys, and The Honor Flight Network.
UVA has long been a center of Greg’s universe (and not just when the basketball team was successful as he was often almost more excited about their ability to “snatch defeat from the jaws of victory” than he was at getting to see the epic wins in 1976 and 2019). He enjoyed teaching the Private Equity course that he created for 15 years and was beyond proud that Alan graduated from his own alma mater in 2012.
In 2015 and 2018 his granddaughters, Tuesday and Silver, were born respectively to Emmy and her husband Michael. When he wasn’t chasing them as a tickle monster, pretending that his arm was a spider, or yelling “boo” loudly enough to scare the neighbors, he was sending them gifts. When he couldn’t see them during this terrible pandemic, they were never short on bath bombs or holiday themed place-settings. Their “Pop” was always there even if he couldn’t see them in person.
Greg’s many successes could easily fill several more pages. But the truth is that he didn’t measure himself by the rungs he climbed along the corporate ladder or by the titles he held but, rather, by who he was as a person. His family has always been most important to him, rivaled only by his friends (whom he also considered family), the various UVA sports teams (whom he also considered family), and strangers near and far (whom...he also considered family). That was the thing about Greg – he rarely, if ever, met someone who he didn’t want to chat up or offer to help. He never met a joke he didn’t want to tell. And he never stopped caring about those around him. While today is a day that none of us ever wanted to experience, we know that he’d be smiling with a tear rolling down his cheek to know that so many of you cared too.
Together they moved to Middletown, Ohio where Greg began his professional life at the Armco Steel Factory. Armco later brought him back to Baltimore, Maryland and eventually to a job at MCI Telecommunications rising to become the Director of Capital Leasing where he was responsible for more than $1 billion of leveraged lease financing.
Greg & Nancy moved to Burke Centre, Virginia in 1983 where they welcomed a baby girl, Emmy, three years later. In 1988 Greg began work at a small “merchant banking firm specializing in buying and selling companies” - The Carlyle Group. As employee number eleven, without “any money under management” the early years were anything but a sure thing, but Greg grew along with Carlyle, ultimately heading the Industrial & Automotive Group and leading the firm’s investments in Allison Transmission, AxleTech International, Hertz, and Horizon Lines among others or as he put it: “sexy assets such as a garbage truck company and a container ship line”.
In 1990 son Alan was born and the family was complete. In 1991 they made the move to Vienna and shortly thereafter Greg became CEO of a Carlyle portfolio company, the Reilly Corporation, and quickly developed a special fondness for the smell of Sprayway glass cleaner.
By 1995 the family got just a little more complete with the addition of beloved dog Maddy and a year later Greg found himself writing an annual Christmas letter and as he put it he only had “one thing left that I said I’d never do...buy a mini-van”. The annual family Christmas letters always held common refrains: pride in Emmy and Alan’s accomplishments, excitement about shared travels, a healthy dose of self-deprecation, and gratitude for Nance’s parenting (and genes).
Over the years Greg served on numerous corporate boards including Hertz, Allison, and HD Supply as well as on the Board of Trustees of the McIntire School at UVA and numerous charitable organizations. He always believed in giving back, and became very active in MCE Social Capital, So Others May Eat, Waterboys, and The Honor Flight Network.
UVA has long been a center of Greg’s universe (and not just when the basketball team was successful as he was often almost more excited about their ability to “snatch defeat from the jaws of victory” than he was at getting to see the epic wins in 1976 and 2019). He enjoyed teaching the Private Equity course that he created for 15 years and was beyond proud that Alan graduated from his own alma mater in 2012.
In 2015 and 2018 his granddaughters, Tuesday and Silver, were born respectively to Emmy and her husband Michael. When he wasn’t chasing them as a tickle monster, pretending that his arm was a spider, or yelling “boo” loudly enough to scare the neighbors, he was sending them gifts. When he couldn’t see them during this terrible pandemic, they were never short on bath bombs or holiday themed place-settings. Their “Pop” was always there even if he couldn’t see them in person.
Greg’s many successes could easily fill several more pages. But the truth is that he didn’t measure himself by the rungs he climbed along the corporate ladder or by the titles he held but, rather, by who he was as a person. His family has always been most important to him, rivaled only by his friends (whom he also considered family), the various UVA sports teams (whom he also considered family), and strangers near and far (whom...he also considered family). That was the thing about Greg – he rarely, if ever, met someone who he didn’t want to chat up or offer to help. He never met a joke he didn’t want to tell. And he never stopped caring about those around him. While today is a day that none of us ever wanted to experience, we know that he’d be smiling with a tear rolling down his cheek to know that so many of you cared too.
Service & Reception
October 16, 2021, 11:00 AM - 2:00 PM
The Ovations Deck at Wolf Trap
1645 Trap Road
Vienna, VA 22182
The Ovations Deck at Wolf Trap
1645 Trap Road
Vienna, VA 22182
Parking Information
Parking will be available on Encore Hill. You will arrive at the entrance to Wolf Trap National Park (1551 Trap Road, Vienna, VA 22182) and follow the path into the park. There is a road on the left with a sign that says “Encore Hill” and you are welcome to park anywhere on that grass lot.
For the safety of everyone, you MUST be vaccinated against COVID-19 to attend this service.
If you have any photos that you would like to share of Greg to be used at the service, please email them to Emily at:
[email protected]
[email protected]
A live stream will be available for those unable to attend the event in person. Click below for link:
Greg was very passionate about Waterboys, an organization thats mission is providing clean, accessible drinking water to communities in need. In lieu of flowers, we ask that you contribute to a memorial water well in Greg's honor. Link is below.