Following his younger brother's career path, Keiser also became director of the Cuban-American Sugar Company and the Guantanamo Sugar Company. George Keiser built his family a home inspired by Islamic architecture, showcasing his fascination with the Middle East and Middle Eastern architecture in particular. In 1947, he founded the Middle East Institute. During World War II, Keiser was a first lieutenant in the U.S. Signal Corps. Further positions held over the course of his life include trustee of the Foreign Service Educational Foundation, the American Research Center in Egypt, and the Visitors Committee of the Harvard Center for Middle Eastern Studies. He was also a member of the American Institute of Architects and president of the Symphony Orchestra of Central Florida. He died on March 23, 1956, after a brief illness and was buried in Wilton, Connecticut. MEI continuously built its reputation by creating a language- as well as a publications program; St John Philby's "Arabian Highlands" was published for MEI by Cornell University Press in 1952. MEI also increased the number of lectures, art exhibits, and conferences. Themes of annual conferences like "The Evolution of Public Responsibility in the Middle East" (1955), "Current Tensions in the Middle East" (1956), and "Neutralism, Communism: The Struggle for Power" (1959) reflected the post-World War II uncertainties about the Middle East. After having split from SAIS in 1948, MEI needed to find a new location. After spending a year at 2002 P Street, Keiser discovered and negotiated in late 1954 the purchase of two inter-connecting townhouses in the Dupont Circle neighborhood at 1761–1763 N Street NW with a joint garden and carriage house. The house, formerly occupied by Senator James B. Eustis and by architect Henry Ives Cobb, is MEI's current location. Keiser's death in 1956 triggered a period of re-evaluation. Edwin M. Wright took over as the second president until 1960, with Angus Sinclair briefly serving in 1958. Following Keiser's death, MEI faced financial troubles. A series of part-time presidents including Edwin M. Wright, James Terry Duce, and Kermit Roosevelt, Jr., who all served in addition to their professional or business responsibilities, chiefly launched new projects with the hope that they would be self-supporting. Among these were "Lands East", an illustrated magazine, and the "Middle East Report of the Week", an "insiders" newsletter which was produced on a mimeograph machine.