A Veteran of Pearl Harbor

George William Blincoe, Sr., age 93, a resident of rural Fort Scott and of Battle Creek, Michigan, died Tuesday, December 30, 2008, at the Mercy Health Center in Fort Scott, Kansas. He was born August 5, 1915, in Fort Scott, Kansas, the son of William T. Blincoe and Grace Fisher Blincoe and grew up on the family farm west of Hiattville, Kansas. After graduating from high school he taught in a one-room school-house in Pinedale, Wyoming, working in the summers for the Wyoming fish and wildlife program, climbing to high mountain streams to spawn golden trout.

George served with the US Navy as a radar & radio technician from 1940-to 1946. Based at Pearl Harbor he was actually airborne in a PBY when he heard the first broadcast news of the Japanese attack.

George married Aileene Juanita Howard on December 8, 1945, at Houston, Texas. He later received his Masters Degree in school administration from Pittsburg State University in 1949 and worked as Superintendent of Schools in Waverly, Missouri. From 1951 to 1957, George worked in Washington, DC as a trainer for the Navy and later, until 1975, as a Civil Defense staff college instructor at the Federal Center in Battle Creek Michigan. Subsequently he instructed schools and businesses across the United States and overseas. Latterly he and Aileene divided their time between Michigan and the family farm in Kansas. His restoration of the property (illustrated in the Blencowe book) received the Bourbon County Conservation award in 1980.

George is survived by Aileene, his wife of 63 years, two children, four grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.

Paula Blincoe Collins