George Elliott

GEORGE WHITING ELLIOTT died April 5, 2014 at the age of 95. George was born to James J. and Alyce (Fischer) Elliott on September 1, 1918 in Sioux City, Iowa. His early childhood was spent on a farm north of Sioux City. He attended a country school when he was 4 years old, riding behind his older brother on an Indian pony. He attended the Sioux City school system and graduated from East High in 1936. George graduated from Iowa State College in June 1941 with a degree in Industrial Engineering and a Commission as Second Lieutenant in the Artillery of the Army. He met Phyllis Bryan and they were married on June 19, 1941 in a lovely early morning ceremony in the Rose Garden on the campus of the university. George and Phyllis celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary three years ago here in Colby. George worked for Westinghouse in Pittsburgh until December 6, 1941 when he was called to active duty in the Army. He served stateside with various units of the Army including the 182nd Division, and the 82nd Airborne Division, and joined the 1st Division in Aachen, Germany on November 1, 1944. At the end of the war, he served with his unit in occupied Germany until returning to Ames, Iowa in December of 1945. His former professor, Dr. Oldsen, immediately offered him a teaching position. He spent one year at Iowa State and subsequently accepted a series of industrial engineering jobs in Newton, Iowa, Denver, Colorado (where he earned his Masters Degree in Civil Engineering) and Fort Worth, Texas. In February of 1952 he taught for four years at the University of Missouri. In June of 1955 he joined Sandia Laboratories, in Albuquerque, New Mexico as a Staff Member in Employment. In 1959 he was assigned to recruit at the two year Technical Institutes all over the country to hire Staff Assistants in the technical fields. He recruited and hired over 1,000 Staff Assistants during a 15-year period. He worked on the Snap-27 project, which was the power source for the ALSEP package on the moon. He was loaned in 1968 to the Washington Technical institute in Washington, DC as Dean of Instruction in starting a new Technical Institute. He retired from Sandia Corporation on July 1, 1975 and moved to Colby, Kansas to manage McKee and Associates Engineers. After putting in many small-town water and sewer systems (flying his own airplane all over the state and beyond), he sold the Engineering firm and purchased the Colby Culligan franchise, which he ran for 10 years. George didn’t really do retirement though – he continued to volunteer with Colby College Alumni Association and was awarded the Honorary Associates Degree in 1999, and with the Methodist Church in Colby. He attended auctions all over the Midwest to collect antique spool chests and clocks which he rebuilt and refinished (with Phyllis). George made a thorough study of his genealogy and found an ancestor who fought in the Revolutionary War. George, ever the engineer, built the family homes in Columbia, MO, Albuquerque, NM and Colby, KS. George attributed his long life to the grace of God, who he always thought was responsible for his unexplained recovery from pancreatic cancer 50 years ago. George participated in an Honor Flight to Washington, DC in April of 2011, accompanied by friend Paul Steele. He was very pleased to be able to join the group of WW2 veterans and view the many new memorials in DC. Survivors include wife Phyllis, daughters Nancy LePell of Colby, KS, Susan Elliott-Bryan of Cedar Rapids, IA, and Georgia Newkirk of Lake Dallas, TX; there are 4 grandchildren and 6 great-grandchildren. A memorial service is planned for Saturday, May 31, 2014 at the Colby United Methodist Church at 10:30 a.m. Memorial donations can be made to Colby United Methodist Church or the American Cancer Society.