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John Alton George, 86, died Friday, January 15 at home in Norman after a brief illness. A memorial service is scheduled for 2 p.m. Thursday at First Presbyterian Church, Norman, with the Reverend Barry Williams officiating.
The son of Joseph P. and Pink (Finch) George, John was born in Cave Springs, Georgia on February 17, 1929. In high school, he flew with the Civil Air Patrol during World War II. He served in the Air Force during the Korean Conflict, training in airborne electronics. His natural curiosity about electricity and what made things happen led him to study electrical engineering at Auburn University. He graduated in 1958 at the dawn of the space age. Hired by the Boeing Company after receiving his BS degree, John worked on the Bomarc B rocket and then in the Apollo Space Program where he was a test engineer on the S-1C, or first stage, of the Saturn V rocket. He received numerous accolades for his Apollo work including a Manned Flight Awareness Award for Apollo 11. The award included the honor of having his name in a time capsule placed on the moon. John was always especially proud that he helped put man on the moon.
He spent the last half of his career with the AWACS program at Tinker Air Force Base. He also took the opportunity to earned an MBA degree from Oklahoma City University. He retired from Boeing in 1994 after 37 years with the company. John enjoyed photography, woodworking, genealogy research, and travel. He was a devoted family man who participated in Indian Guides and Scouting, and spent many hours camping, hiking and boating with his family, and later taking his grandsons to museums and eating lunch with them in the treehouse he built. John was a member of the Glencoe, Alabama Masonic Lodge and the Scottish Rite of Guthrie. He attended First Presbyterian Church.
He was preceded in death by his parents and infant brother Joe Earl.
He is survived by his beloved wife of 62 years, Nelle Jo George; his son John Michael and wife Rhonda (Ward); his daughter Cynthia Kay; grandsons Joshua Michael and Jeremy Joseph all of Norman; brother Jimmy Allen George of Gadsden, Alabama; and several nieces and nephews.
The family would like to extend sincere appreciation to the caring staffs of Doctors Park Home Health and Heavenly Hospice for their kind attentions to John and his family.
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