 After leaving his Real Estate Development business in St. Simons Island, Georgia, Mead and his wife moved to Saratoga, California where Mead owned an aircraft sales firm based in San Jose, California.On March 31, 1993, Mead as a passenger on a plane flown by a colleague was killed when the plane crashed near Livermore, California.Mead was survived by his wife Caroline (Quintard) Mead, his mother Mary Wilshire Mead, brothers Dan Mead, George Mead, Whit Mead, Dudley Mead and sister Mimi Mead-Hagen.