George Tooby, 76; World-Class Yachtsman

George Tooby, a world-class yachtsman who sailed for the Newport Harbor Yacht Club, has died at a Pasadena convalescent home. He was 76.

He died Tuesday of natural causes, according to a spokesman for Cabot and Sons mortuary in Pasadena.

Services are scheduled for 2 p.m. today at All Saints Episcopal Church, 132 N. Euclid Ave., Pasadena.

Tooby, who also held memberships in the St. Francis Yacht Club of San Francisco and the New York Yacht Club, won the National Championship two consecutive years and placed second in the world One Ton Cup competition.

After Australia won the America’s Cup in 1983, Tooby, of San Marino, organized a syndicate for the Newport club to build and back an ill-fated challenger, the Eagle, in the 1987 international contest.

He hired Johan Valentijn, who had designed the Liberty, in which Dennis Conner lost the cup in 1983, to design the new entry, and Olympic gold medalist Rod Davis of El Segundo to sail it. He also enlisted Peter Ueberroth, then commissioner of baseball, as honorary chairman of the syndicate’s board of trustees in order to use his name in fund-raising.

Tooby resigned from the troubled syndicate several months before the Australia race, citing lack of time because of his business and personal responsibilities. The Eagle, after poor performances in 1986 competition, bowed out of the 1987 international contest.

A 1931 graduate of Caltech, Tooby was a Pasadena businessman credited with inventing a form of instant milk powder.

He leaves his wife, the former Grace Ferrier; four sons, Ernest, Paul, Frank and John, and one brother, Arthur.