There aren’t many of us who can say we’ve given the sports, organizations, causes or people we believe in anything more substantial than moral support. Few of us have offered more than modest financial support or donated more than a handful of hours to further a cause or a person’s career.

Similarly, as horse sports have evolved toward an ever more “professional” attitude, the owner or rider who participates without the intention of financial gain has become as remarkable as individuals who promote a cause or an organization without the hope of personal gain. And few people today would patiently own a business that barely made a cent for well more than a decade.

But George L. Ohrstrom Jr., the Chronicle’s owner for 50 years who died on Oct. 6 (see p. 59) did all that. You see, Mr. Ohrstrom honestly, truly enjoyed horse sports, most particularly racing (especially over timber) and foxhunting. So for more than half a century, he contributed generously to all sorts of hunt meets and point-to-points while breeding and owning horses to run in them and to run at the major tracks in this country and in Europe. Scores of trainers, riders, grooms, breeders and meet directors benefited from his sporting fervor. Generations more will benefit from his other philanthropic activities. Among other things, he helped found the Piedmont Environmental Council, one of the country’s most active land-preservation organizations, in the early ’70s, and he proved his commitment by putting his properties into permanent conservation easement.

But Peter Winants, my former boss here at the Chronicle, told me he thought Mr. Ohrstrom’s two greatest contributions to the horse world were the National Sporting Library and the Chronicle. Admittedly, Mr. Winants’ opinion could be colored by his direct involvement with these two entities for the past three-plus decades, but I agree. With Mr. Ohrstrom’s blessing, Mr. Winants spearheaded the fund-raising effort needed to construct the library’s breathtaking permanent home next door to our building, and its opening six years ago climaxed the dreams of Mr. Ohrstrom, his father and Alexander Mackay-Smith, whom Mr. Winants succeeded at both the Chronicle and the NSL. It’s the only place in the country that houses such a complete collection of centuries worth of sporting books and art.

For most of the first 20 years Mr. Ohrstrom owned the Chronicle after inheriting it from his father in 1955, its profit margin was decidedly slim, if at all. Horses and the sports surrounding them weren’t much of a business then, but Mr. Ohrstrom firmly believed in the Chronicle’s mission to provide competitive results and informed opinions, and he never wavered from that belief. He gave Mr. Mackay-Smith the freedom to slowly, steadily confirm the Chronicle’s reputation, and when Mr. Mackay-Smith decided to retire in the early ’70s, Mr. Ohrstrom called on his Princeton schoolmate Mr. Winants, who built upon Mr. Mackay-Smith’s efforts and made the magazine profitable.

Emblematic of Mr. Ohrstrom’s ownership was that never once, in the combined 30 years that Mr. Winants and I have been editing the magazine, did he ever suggest or urge either of us to publish a specific article or photograph. “It was just the opposite,” Mr. Winants recalled. He was often embarrassed if we mentioned him as the owner or breeder of a winning horse. “He just took pride in the Chronicle, and he wanted to stay in the background,” Mr. Winants said.

For all your generosity and sportsmanship, Mr. Ohrstrom, we here at the Chronicle, on behalf of so many others, offer a deeply felt thank you.