When he relinquished the title of CEO, he explained in an interview with the Washington Business Journal that he didn't "want to fall into the trap of thinking that I was indispensable."
This year, Ferris Baker sold itself to Dain Rauscher, a subsidiary of the Royal Bank of Canada, after a stock manipulation scheme involving a client and broker caught the attention of federal regulators.
But Mr. Ferris remained as chairman of the board of his old company.
In the WBJ profile, he said it was unlikely that he would ever fully retire. "I'm not the type of person who can go to Florida and worry about his tee time," he said.
Mr. Ferris was born in Washington and raised in Chevy Chase. He was a 1944 graduate of St. Albans School in Washington, and began studies at Princeton University before leaving to serve as a seaman in the Navy during the waning days of World War II.
After the war, he returned to Princeton, where he earned a bachelor's degree in 1948; two years later, he earned a master's degree in business administration from the Harvard Business School.
The Chevy Chase resident was a former governor of the New York Stock Exchange and a former three-term president of the Investment Bankers Association of America.
He had been chairman of the President's Task Force on International Private Enterprise.
He was a member of the health advisory board of the Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health, and his board memberships included TCA TrustCorp of America and Marshfield Associates.
Mr. Ferris was a consultant on capital market development for the World Bank and governments in developing countries.
Mr. Ferris was also active in the cultural and philanthropic life of the nation's capital. He had been campaign chairman for the National Symphony Orchestra, vice chairman of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History and had been general campaign chairman for United Way.
He had served on the executive committee and had been chairman of the nominating committee of the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Washington.
He was an avid golfer and world traveler. He was a member of the Metropolitan, Burning Tree, and Chevy Chase clubs.
"George and I have been friends for 64 years, since we were students at Princeton. His death is a great shock to me," said retired Baltimore urologist Dr. Earl P. Galleher Jr. "He was a person of huge integrity and honesty who was always looking out for others."
He added: "He was extremely loyal to his family and friends and exemplified in my mind all that was good, and this was a gift to all who knew him."
Funeral services are pending.
Survivors include his wife of 44 years, the former Nancy Strouce; three sons, George M. Ferris III of Baltimore, Willard B. Ferris of McLean, Va., and David H. Ferris of Potomac; two daughters, Karen Kelly Warner and Kimberly Ferris Crocker, both of Chevy Chase; a sister, Gene Benedict of McLean; and seven grandchildren. An earlier marriage ended in divorce.
