John Alton George, 86, died January 15 at home in Norman, Oklahoma after a brief illness. Funeral services are scheduled for 2 p.m. Tuesday at the Crestwood Memorial Chapel. Interment will follow in the cemetery. The family will receive friends on Monday evening from 6 to 8 p.m. Crestwood Funeral Home is in charge of services.
The son of Joseph P. and Pink (Finch) George, John was born in Cave Spring, Georgia on February 17, 1929. In high school, he ew with the Civil Air Patrol during World War II. He graduated from Glencoe High School in 1946. He served in the Air Force during the Korean Conict, 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 rst 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 earn an MBA degree from Oklahoma City University. He retired from Boeing in 1994 after 37 years with the company. John enjoyed painting, 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 Masonic Lodge No. 846 and the Scottish Rite of Guthrie, Oklahoma. He attended First Presbyterian Church in Norman.
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, Oklahoma; brother Jimmy Allen George; special friend Susan (Waid) George, both of Gadsden; and several nieces and nephews.
Pallbearers will be Joshua George, Jeremy George, David George, Jody George, Rodney Ward, and Jerry Cheaves.