George C. Kiefer. president and treasurer of the New Haven Shoe Company, was born May 23, 1882, in Baltimore, Maryland, a son of Mathias Kiefer, who is also a native of that state and is of French extraction, his ancestors having come from Alsace-Lorraine. Mathias Kiefer was through the period of his active life a successful agriculturist but is now living retired in Catonsville, Maryland. He married Margaret Morgan, a native of Connecticut and a representative of one of the old families of that state, of English lineage.
     Of their family of eight children George C. Kiefer was the fourth. After attending public and high schools in Baltimore he became a student in the Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and later attended the University of Pennsylvania. On attaining his majority he started out in the business world independently, being first employed in the steel mills. He was apprenticed to the Tennessee Coal. Iron & Railroad Company of Birmingham, Alabama, becoming thoroughly proficient in that line and gaining a comprehen-sive knowledge of the processes of steel manufacture in all of the different grades. He became recognized as an expert and was made a salesman with the American Steel & Wire Company. Later he was advanced to the position of state representative of that company in Connecticut and so continued until April, 1915, when he resigned his position to enter mercantile circles, purchasing the business of the New Haven Shoe Company, which had been established in 1838 and is the oldest and largest individual shoe house of the city if not of the state. In this connection he controls a trade of gratifying proportions and to the conduct of the business brings the spirit of progressive enterprise and modern-day commercial methods. His activities are therefore farreaching and resultant and New Haven regards him as a valued addition to her business circles.
     On the 12th of October, 1912, Mr. Kiefer was married in New Haven to Miss Hazel M. Nesbit, a native of this city and a daughter of R. H. and Katherine (Fairchild) Nesbit, who belonged to one of the old Connecticut families. Mr. and Mrs. Kiefer have a daughter, Jean Nesbit, who was born September 10, 1914.
     Politically Mr. Kiefer is a republican, giving stalwart support to the party yet never seeking office. He is well known and popular in club circles, holding membership in the Sachems Head Yacht, Quinnipiac, New Haven Country and New Haven Lawn Clubs, the Chamber of Commerce and the Business Men's Association and the Transportation Club of New York. His religious faith is that of the Presbyterian church. While Mr. Kiefer was accorded liberal educational privileges, he had no financial assistance at the outset of his business career and has worked his way upward through that efficiency which results in the thorough mastery of every task and the development of powers qualifying one to cope with still larger duties. He is a man of well balanced capacities, has the qualities of leadership and easily wins the cooperation of those who enter his employ because they recognize his fitness for leadership and the sense of justice which he manifests at all times.