Sedgwick Mead, Jr.

January 18, 1943 – June 26, 2025

Sedgwick Mead, Jr. died peacefully on June 26, 2025, from complications of Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy. He was 82. Sedg was born in Boston, Mass., on January 18, 1943, to Dr. Sedgwick Mead and Marjorie Chick Mead. Dr. Mead was serving with an Army medical unit in Casablanca when Sedg was born, and later in Italy, so did not meet his son until three years later when he was discharged after World War II. The family lived in Littleton, Mass. until Sedg was five years old, when they moved to St. Louis. When Sedg was eleven, they moved to El Cerrito, Calif.

Sedg graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School in St. Louis, received his B.A. from Harvard College, and an M.B.A. from Columbia University. He worked for Real Estate Research Company in Chicago and San Francisco, before joining the Charles H. Shaw Company, a real estate development firm based in Chicago.

Sedg ran the New York office of the Shaw Company until the early 1990s, where his star project was Museum Tower, the condominium high-rise above the Museum of Modern Art. His other New York projects included several condominium and office buildings.

Beginning in the mid-1970s and while he was working for the Shaw Company in New York, Sedg joined Guy and Peggy McClellan in forming the Mead McClellan Partnership. Together they rehabbed many multi-family buildings in Soulard and other city neighborhoods. In the '90s he moved to different real-estate work,  including working for the St. Louis Development Corporation and for A.G. Edwards, building several houses in St. Louis and in Madill, Okla., helping his mother-in-law subdivide land in Corsicana, Texas, working with a friend on a commercial development in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., and investing in rentals for snowbirds in Fountain Hills, Ariz., where he and Catherine spent many happy Februarys.

Sedg married Catherine Perry in 1984 and they adopted daughters Nellie and Margie in 1989 and 1991. He was an incredible hands-on dad, racking up far more park, zoo, and orthodontist hours than Catherine did. The years the girls spent at New City School and Crossroads College Prep were some of the happiest, as he adored the girls and adored watching them grow into wonderful young women.

And he thought he won the son-in-law lottery. With Margie and Joey he enjoyed many boat and beach trips in the Florida Keys, and the addition of Nellie and Danny's daughter Bella thrilled the entire family. Whether he was hiking the Grand Canyon, running in Lafayette Square Park, skiing, snorkeling, traveling, or just visiting with friends both new and old, Sedg brought an enthusiasm to everything he did.

He loved music, especially opera and oldies, theatre, talking about current events, and reading–primarily history and business books. He spent many enjoyable hours working with his brother Marshall when Marshall and his wife Shari moved from California to a farm in Washington County.

As another part-time "retirement job" Sedg joined with two friends to provide free real estate consulting to St. Louis non-profits. Whether he was helping find a new location for a day care center, working with arts groups, or with organizations for people with disabilities, he eagerly and freely shared his love of and knowledge of real estate.

Sedg is survived by his wife Catherine Perry, daughter Nellie Catanzaro and her husband Danny and their daughter Bella of Olathe, Kan., daughter Margie Mead and her husband Joey Urbanovitch of Cudjoe Key, Fla., sister-in-law Shari Smith-Mead of Duarte, Calif., and numerous Perry Clan nieces, nephews and their parents and children. Sedg was preceded in death by his parents Sedgwick and Marjorie Mead, dear friend and stepmother Mary Abbott Mead, and brother Marshall Mead. The family wishes to thank the wonderful caregivers, nurses and therapists at Martha's Hands, Private Home Care, Kirkwood SSM Rehab and, most recently, Parc Provence Memory Care, for all their loving assistance over the last four years.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to Nine PBS at www.ninePBS.org/support or Opera Theatre of St. Louis at opera-stl.org/support-us .  A memorial service will be held on July 28, 2025 at 2:00 pm at  9th Street Abbey, 1808 S. 9th Street, St. Louis MO 63104.