Vaughn Nixon II

VAUGHN NIXON, II, passed away on Sunday, January 1, 2023 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. Born January 2, 1934 in Atlanta, Georgia, he was the son of Betty Matthews Nixon and William Markley Nixon, II. He attended E. Rivers Grammar School, Culver Military Academy where he was a member of the Black Horse Troop, Georgia Tech and was graduated from Auburn University with a degree in electrical engineering.

Upon graduation in 1957, he joined General Electric Corporation where he had a 28-year career. In 1958, he was called to active duty in the Air Force as a Captain in charge of communications in Tokyo, Japan. In 1962, he returned to New York as part of the International Division of GE. He married Judith Dee McMillin in 1966, and two years later he was posted to London with GE where he and his family lived for 12 years. Their children, Matthew and Elizabeth, were born there. He later was transferred to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia where he was General Manager of GE in Malaysia. Upon retiring from GE in 1985, he joined General Systems Company in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. In 1997, his wife of 31 years died. He retired from General Systems in 1999.

In 2000, he married Margaret “Skippy” Stone. Vaughn and Skippy lived in Pittsfield where he was active in the community with the Lenox Club and the Berkshire Botanical Garden until 2014 when the couple relocated to Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida where his family had been long-time residents.

He was a member of the Piedmont Driving Club in Atlanta, Mark’s Club and Annabel’s in London, the Royal Selangor Golf Club in Kuala Lumpur, Pittsfield Country Club and The Lenox Club in the Berkshires, and Sawgrass Country Club and Ponte Vedra Inn and Club in Ponte Vedra Beach.

He loved to travel and taste the world, barbecue, garden and dive into a good spy novel. He was also an active supporter of the arts and the environment through the Vaughn Nixon Foundation.

He was preceded in death by his parents Mr. and Mrs. William Markley Nixon, II, his brother William Markley Nixon, III, and his first wife Judith McMillin Nixon. He is survived by his wife, Margaret Stone Nixon of Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, his son Matthew Vaughn Nixon and granddaughters Asha and Lua Nixon, his daughter Elizabeth Nixon Rivière and his son-in-law Fabien Rivière, grandsons, William and James Rivière; and his brother Albert Matthews Nixon and wife Patricia Nixon of Flowery Branch, Georgia.

A service will be held in Thomaston, Georgia, where other members of the Nixon family are interred, at a later date.

In lieu of flowers, charitable donations may be made in his memory to the Berkshire Botanical Garden, Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and to the Culver Military Academy, Culver, Indiana.