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.
DONATIONS
The Taft Museum of Art316 Pike Street, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202
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