Nellysford
Nelson County, Virginia
The memory is so strong it feels like yesterday. Yvette and I were walking into the Rockfish Valley Community Center just north of Nellysford on a winter morning. The smell of frying bacon and pancakes cooking on the griddle filled the air. Dozens of people were lined up getting stacks of pancakes, bacon and eggs then headed for the makeshift dining room in an old classroom of the school that’s seen a lot of history. That must have been around late 2004 or early 2005.
Once we got seated and started tearing into our breakfast I noticed this man wearing an AOPA hat nearby. (Aircraft Owners & Pilots Association) That wouldn’t mean a thing to most folks. But, if you’re a private pilot, like me, it’s means you have found your tribe. I asked the man, “Do you just wear the hat or are you really a pilot?” A short and concise reply, “I am.” From there the conversation flowed and didn’t stop for over two decades.
George and I took several more flights together and like most long time pilots we had thousands of stories to tell each other. I was a novice compared to George, even though I was licensed for airplanes back in 1980 and helicopters two years later in 1982. George’s history goes way back. By 2008 he already had over a half century of pilot experience.
George’s flying experience was so highly regarded he received the prestigious Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award from the FAA back in 2008 during a ceremony held at the former Stoney Creek Bar & Grill.
Outside of flying I got to know George and his wife Mickey on a personal level too. I vividly remember a lovely memorial dinner they held for a fellow Wintergreen(er) Brian O’Rourke when he passed away many years ago. George sang Danny Boy at the dinner. He had an impressive singing voice like no other!
One of my fondest memories of George is when he’d call or showed up at the house back when we were living in Greenfield. Usually Mickey was out of state visiting kids or grandkids. George always brought over steaks and we’d have a nice bottle of red wine. We’d grill on the deck out back and talk for hours and hours.
I always assumed George would be as active as he was when I first got to know him. He reminded me so much of another pilot mentor of mine, Charmiane Freeman, back during my days of flying in the Mid-South. She flew well into her 80s and drove until about age 90 before passing a couple of years later. She also helped get George approved for the Wright Brothers Award, though the two had never met. There’s a special kinship between pilots even if they don’t know each other.
As age has a way of catching up, it did with George too. Body parts wear out, and need fixing. George had knee replacement surgery sometime in his 80s, it didn’t go well ultimately and there was a period of time he wasn’t expected to make it. George told me everyone was prepared for him to pass then. But, it wasn’t his time just yet.
After severe infections, hospitalizations, a replacement for the new replacement, George emerged.
I remember looking out the window one day while having lunch at the old Margaritas in Nellysford and there was George getting out of his car to head into the IGA. I jumped up and ran out, not knowing of his miraculous recovery. I remember saying, “George you’re not supposed to be here.” He said, “Indeed I am not, but here I am.” We both laughed and set a lunch date a few days later and caught up.
Not only was George active in skiing and flying and so many other things, he was also a big supporter of what was then called Wintergreen Performing Arts. Always helping with their annual festival each summer. He’d volunteered with them for decades.
Not long after I’d met George for that wonderful catchup lunch back in 2018, the unthinkable happened. He had another big setback, a stroke. Though he lost his ability to drive, fly, ski and such, he continued pushing on with a lot of limitations, yet enjoying life as he could from his home in Stoney Creek.
I lost touch with George, mostly, during those years. I’d get updates from Mickey when I’d run into her or from other relatives. Yvette had seen him a time or two but life had certainly changed as it does for all of us.
Then several days ago I got a message from our mutual friend John Taylor up on Devils Knob. John and George worked together a lot on the Wintergreen Summer Music Festival over the years. John told me, “George is gone.”
It was strange knowing George wasn’t with us anymore, but also nice knowing he’s soaring across those crystal blue skies he so loved to fly in for over half a century. George made to 95 years old, not a bad run at all.
There will be a celebration of life held for George later this summer on July 26th at the McKinney home in Nellysford. Here’s George’s formal obituary that’s got an even more detailed history of spectacular life!
Seeing a Bonanza flying across the sky these days will sure have a different meaning now George, fly high my friend.
