George T. Morton

Morton, Jr., lived a full life of struggle and triumph.

Born to George Thomas Iro Morton and Bonibel Morton in

Toledo, the young George and his mother left probably in the

late 1920s and moved to the Over the Rhine — “bring your own

switchblade” as he put it— neighborhood in Cincinnati where he

ran with a tough crowd.

In his mid-teens, George faced a decision: go to school or eat.

He opted for the latter and worked as a bookbinder’s assistant

among other odd jobs.

His spirituality began awakening and he attended a Lutheran

church across the river in Covington, Ky.

On Feb. 8, 1940, he declared his U.S. citizenship (he had held

dual citizenship in Canada) when he enlisted in the U.S. Army

at Fort Thomas, Ky.; was bounced through the Army

bureaucracies of Kentucky and New York; sailed south to the

Panama Canal, north to San Francisco and from there traveled

by fruit boat to Oahu. After basic training, he was assigned to

the 27th Infantry — the “Wolfhounds” — and was further

assigned to the small Army post of Fort Armstrong on the

Honolulu Harbor.

Meanwhile, George took confirmation classes and became one

of the first two confirmands of the Missouri Synod Lutheran

Church in Hawai’i. He also pursued studies at the University of

Hawai’i.

On the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, he and a buddy skipped

church to swim at Waikiki when the world changed forever.

George returned to Fort Armstrong as the second wave of

bombings began and martial law was declared. From then on, it

was a series of musters, retrieving bodies from the airfields and

bagging them, and nighttime conversations with his fellow

soldiers about whether they would live through it all. He later

would work at Fort DeRussy to experiment with frozen

ammunition that might be used to liberate the Aleutian Islands

captured by the Japanese.

During the war years, he gained an appreciation for engineers

because they, to him, were people who could assess situations

and get things done.

After the war, George earned a degree in mechanical

engineering at The Ohio State University, where he met Marian Wilt

and they married in 1949.

They moved to Cincinnati where he eventually was hired by

General Electric as a manager and designer of jet engines

.

They lived in Clifton and eventually bought property in

Finneytown on West Galbraith Road where they and some

friends built the house that became the home for their three

children — Tom, Paula and Andrew. In 1973, Hamilton County

bought the house for a future exit of the Ronald Reagan Cross

County Highway. They moved to a mid-century modern house

on Beechtree Drive until George and Marian, with the kids gone

from the nest, moved to a nearby townhome.

As befit a young engineer/executive and family man, George

bought the ultimate family heirloom, a 1948 MG TC — “the

sports car America loved first” — that was his daily driver in the

1960s. The MG is now in Tom’s loving care.

Besides raising a family and working, George was active at Our

Savior Lutheran Church in Norwood and later at Messiah

Lutheran Church in Greenhills.

In Boy Scouts and other activities, he took an intense interest in

mentoring and befriending boys whose fathers were absent,

which was his way to give to others what he did not receive in

his youth.

.

In 1983, George and Marian moved to Soisy-sur-Seine about

35 miles south of Paris and he worked with General Electric and

SNECMA to build jet engines. They traveled Europe, the Middle

East and Asia.

They returned to Cincinnati in 1986 and he soon retired which

launched new adventures.

For decades, George rarely talked about Pearl Harbor or his

war experiences. But he and Marian went to Hawai’i in the late

1980s, visited the Arizona Memorial and nearly 50 years of

repressed anguish erupted. He channeled that grief, and with

and other veterans, established the Southwestern Ohio Pearl

Harbor Survivors Association.

George also became a docent at the Taft Museum — near his

boyhood neighborhood — where he conducted tours and

became an expert in antique French watches.

France called again in the mid-1990s. He hefted a 14-pound

backpack and hit the road in southern France for a month to

explore Roman ruins.

In 2010 George and Marian moved to Rockynol in Akron. George lived there until

his death on Aug. 26.

During his 98 years, George learned to make decisions and

grow — staying an uneducated street kid probably would have

turned out badly -- by joining the Army, getting an education,

building his own house, raising kids without having a father of

his own as a model, earning a couple of master’s degrees,

nurturing piety, enduring a humiliating time of unemployment,

moving on when the government took the very house he built,

staying active during retirement when the temptation looms to

just pack it in, and embracing eternity with open arms as the

years wound down and the dementia took hold.

He would say he was no more or less a hero during the war; no

more or less a citizen with family, work and civic duties; and no

more or less a Christian as he grew to know God.

But to those who knew him, he was more than all of the above.

George was preceded in death by his wife Marian, parents, and

a half-brother, Iro Morton.

He is survived by his children Tom of Casper, Wyo., Paula of

Aurora, Colo., and Andrew (Joyce) and their children Joshua,

Elise and Sean of Wadsworth, Ohio.

The funeral will be held at Fairlawn Lutheran Church, 3415 W.

Market St., Fairlawn, Ohio, at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 3.

Visitation is at 9:30 a.m.

In lieu of flowers, the family would appreciate donations to the

Taft Museum at taftmuseum.org.