Along the Way: U.S. Marines honored remarkable Harry George

The remarkable Harry George, a World War II veteran, is gone, having died last week, but he got a nice surprise from the military only days before his passing.

With the organizational help of Laurel Kane, a medical social worker employed with Kindred Hospice out of Independence, seven uniformed U.S. Marines and 25 recruits on Jan. 8, marched up Pin Oak Drive in Sugar Bush Knolls to pay their respects to George who had been residing with his daughter, Cindy Hall and her husband, in recent years.

George, assisted by Kane and family members, came to the door. The Marines presented two lapel pins along with a flag and a certificate of thanks. George had been a Kent resident most of his life so Kent Mayor Jerry Fiala attended and read a proclamation designating Jan. 8, the day of the ceremony, “Harry George Day.”

A widower for several years, George in his late 90s moved in with David and Cindy Hall and became our neighbor. Along with numerous friends and well-wishers, we were invited three and a half years ago to his 100th birthday at the Halls and Harry was as gracious as could be.

“That is because Harry was never concerned about himself, but always about others and what he could do to help,” David Hall said recently.

Weather permitting, we would often see Harry walking or working outside the home of Dave and Cindy. Our houses are separated by a stand of evergreen trees made less attractive by substantial undergrowth.

One warm summer morning, I found Harry, having recently celebrated his 101st birthday outside clearing out the undergrowth. It took several days as there was a lot of it, but soon, Harry had it clean as a whistle.

The next summer at the age of 102, Harry spread 25 yards of mulch around the Halls home. He regularly helped Cindy with plantings.

This past summer, Janet spotted Harry, having turned 103 years old, out taking a walk and asked how he was doing.

“You know,” he said, “I am starting to feel my age.”

The word genius is over-used, but Harry George had a way with machinery that seems genius level to me. Working for Kent Machine, Inc., he designed and built machines on order. A person would come to Kent Machine and describe what he needed. Harry would then design the machine do accomplish that and then build it. When Harry started with the company in the late 1930s, its president was Major Roy Smith who was simultaneously president of Lamson and Sessions where the treasurer was Harry’s father, Will George.

When we were attending his 100th birthday party, his son-in-law, Dave, proudly showed us a grandfather clock, its parts entirely made out of wood.

“Harry built this,” Dave said.

His mechanical abilities may have saved his life because in the immediate aftermath of the Pearl Harbor bombing on Dec. 7, 1941, Harry, a young man in his 20s, enlisted, itching for combat to avenge the attack.

The military brass learned of Harry’s ability with machines and told him he was not going anywhere near combat, but instead would use his talents to keep America’s Corsair fighter planes flying. He spent the war stationed mostly in the Pacific. Fighter planes with faulty equipment, some of them damaged by enemy fire, were put in Harry’s care and he would get them flying again. His efforts helped America win the war.

A member of what Broadcaster Tom Brokaw, called, “The Greatest Generation,” Harry returned home, having already during a leave married his high school sweetheart, Bettye Sue Myers. He went to work, with his wife raised a daughter and three sons, all of them accomplished, and never boasted about his military service.

After the U.S. Marines arrived to thank him for his service. Harry, a tear in his eye, pronounced the Marines and recruits standing in formation in front of him, “Some of the nicest people I have ever met.”

Always about the other person and not himself, Harry George at 103 was a person of strong character and generous nature: an inspiration.

David E. Dix is the former publisher of the Record-Courier.

This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Along the Way: U.S. Marines honored remarkable Harry George