Name: Gorsline Runciman Funeral Home
Address: East Lansing, MI

I knew George through the Forest Service in East Lansing, MI. He had retired by the time I started in 1997 but volunteered for many years.  He often came into the office and shared his Field and Stream magazines and was always willing to come along and assist with our research studies in the field.  He helped set up traps, collected samples and data on pine shoot beetle, and developed bent wire supports for setting out trap logs which we named "Heaton Ms". He liked to stop at restaurants near our field sites for lunch and dinner and always ate "just the right amount" to save room for pie for dessert which he rated on a scale of 3.14.   He was quiet, kind, and had a great sense of humor and was fun to work with.  


Every Christmas for decades, George would make the trek from Michigan to Waldo, Ohio, to visit my parents with whom he had worked at the U.S. Forest Service. He always came bearing gifts, including a tin of assorted cookies he and his mom made. I'll never forget the rum balls - so good! George loved geology, and his gifts to me and my brothers were invariably beautifully polished rock specimens. As for the gifts my parents gave him, George would use his pocketknife to open them, careful not to rip the paper. When we asked why he was so careful, he said it was because he liked to rewrap them and enjoy opening them all over again when he returned home.

As a kid, I knew George as a kind and deliberate man of few words who was a good friend to my parents. When I reconnected with him over this past year, I found him to be that same kind and deliberate man,  but, this time around, we exchanged a lot more words. :) He was genuinely curious about what interested me and about how the rest of the family was doing, and he was still absorbing  information and learning about a wide range of topics that interested him. 

During a visit, I asked him about an especially thick book sitting on his table next to other books and scientific magazines. He said it was his Bible and that he read it regularly. "I'm studying for my final exam," he said wryly. I'm sure he passed it with flying colors.

I was blessed to have taken care of George, while he lived at The Maples of St John’s Assisted Living.
George was an amazing, witty man! I will always remember his little random comments, and learning so much about gardens, trees, weeds, and flowers!
He will be missed dearly by all of us who had the pleasure of taken care of George!

Nicole wandell

I met George while working for the U.S. Forest Service in East Lansing, Michigan.  He seemed to be a quiet and gentle soul. Then I experienced his absolutely amazing sense of humor; to this day some of his antics make me chuckle.   I’m sure that he and God are laughing it up right now.   I thank you for sharing him with us. 
— Noel Bennett and also my husband, Bruce Bennett

OBITUARY

George C. Heaton

May 30, 1935 – July 22, 2023

Gorsline Runciman Funeral Homes

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