Dr. Merton Baron George

Obituary of Dr. Merton Baron Tisdale George

Written Tribute by Granddaughter, freelance Writer Julia Pistell, julia.pistell@gmail.com MELROSE – Dr. Merton “Baron” Tisdale George died peacefully on November 2, 2017 in Peabody, MA, after a remarkable life devoted to his family, to aerospace, and to scientific inquiry. Baron was a loving father to his two daughters, a devoted husband to his wife Kay for more than 70 years, and a happy grandfather to his five grandchildren who adored him. He had a deep interest in the natural world, and his career in the aerospace industry involved him in many important projects during the height of the space race. Born on October 24, 1920 and raised in Saskatchewan, Canada, Dr. George was fascinated with flight from an early age. When he wasn’t chasing gophers with his sisters Beryl and Betty, Baron made his way to the local airport, just a mile from his home, every day. There, the young boy would observe different types of aircraft and try and speak to the pilots. His parents Baron and Elizabeth encouraged his building and flying of model airplanes. He entered the Jimmie Allen National Contest to build a model from the same plans as thousands of other children, and won that national competition with a silver cup. In the summer of 1939, Baron met Kathleen “Kay” Cousens, a “Girl Friday” for Noordyn Aviation. She agreed to see a movie with the young draftsman who spent his days drawing and modifying aircraft, and eventually accepted his marriage proposal while walking home from the streetcar. When they did marry a few years later, her parents’ primary concern was that Baron’s tall, thin frame perhaps meant that he wasn’t “robust” and wouldn’t live a healthy life. As the years and years and years went by, the family had more than one laugh over that misplaced worry. The same month they married in 1945, Baron began studying at McGill University with a fellowship, earning his Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering. They then moved to the United States so he could complete his doctoral degree in Aeronautical Engineering at Cornell University in 1953. In Ithaca is the small house that Baron and Kay lived in when their daughter Heather was born in 1951. After achieving his doctorate, Dr. George worked in Research & Design at Douglas Aircraft in Santa Monica, California, and welcomed his second daughter Penelope in 1954. In 1955 Baron flew back across the country to Boston, MA, to join Dr. Arthur Kantrowitz in the formation of Avco-Everett as the Vice President of Research & Development. During the evenings at their house in Melrose, Baron delighted in helping his daughters with their homework: insisting on mathematically precise letterings and jumping in on all matters of science, especially astronomy. In the early 1960’s, Kay and Baron began to climb skyward - by foot. These passionate members of the Appalachian Mountain Club hiked every single peak in New England over 4,000 feet, from Mt. Tecumseh to Mt. Washington. Baron and Kay also loved to travel: they flew to Hawaii to visit his sister; to the British Isles; to South America, South Korea and Japan to accompany babies who had been adopted to the United States. In his fifties, Baron fulfilled his lifelong passion and learned to fly, sharing ownership of a plane with nine friends. He flew it with joy, taking his daughters and sons-in-law up in the sky to see the lights around Christmastime, or visit small airports all over New England. Time flew, too. Baron flew through months of being recruited to work for the White House, only to have it all fall through when the Watergate scandal broke; he flew through years of designing heat shields for the Apollo Capsules and the honor of having them on display in the Boston Museum of Science; he flew through an evening of drinks with the legendary astronaut John Glenn. And yet he always came to land in a natural world he loved just as much as the sky. The season or weather didn’t keep him indoors; he snowshoed with his daughter Penny or taught his daughter Heather how to perfectly photograph a summer flower; he loved checking on the water levels and lily pads at the frog pond with his grandchildren. In 1985 Baron and Kay retired to Cape Cod. The Cape house was his launching point for thirty years - from there, he and Kay continued to travel, especially to fly out to Canada for birthday parties with his twin sister, Beryl. They continued to blow out candles together through their ninety-fifth birthday-- a tradition ended only by Beryl’s death in 2016. Even when Baron and Kay left Cape Cod to live in Brooksby Village, Baron stayed so active that he held the record for “most workouts in the gym in a single month” - sixty workouts a month, at ninety-six years old. “What a treat,” he said to his visitors in the hospital. Every day polite and kind and curious, Baron was loved by those who knew him well and those whose lives he only briefly passed by. His five grandchildren - Julia Pistell, a writer; Alex Pistell, a science teacher; Jessica Hurley, an international travel manager; Emily Pistell, an outdoor educator; and Jordan Hurley, an environmentalist - are all proud to carry on his many interests. He will be deeply missed by his daughters Heather Pistell and Penny Hurley, his grandchildren, his newborn great-granddaughter Vega, his loving extended family of Canadian relatives, and most of all, his wife of more than seventy-two years, Kay George. And though they may not have ever known his name, many others knew Baron. “You’ve got the airplane man,” waitresses would say at his favorite restaurants. He would draw small airplanes with pencil, or crayon, or a pen from his pocket and hand these small crafts to anyone who had helped him. He painted beautiful watercolor airplanes on every letter, every card, every piece of mail that went out from his home in Melrose, or Cape Cod, or Brooksby Village. “If there was a piece of paper there, he’d start to draw,” says Kay. Those little planes journeyed by mail, through the air, all over the world. Merton Baron Tisdale George lived for 97 years, enjoying the sky and the weather of all 388 of those seasons. His gaze reached down to the canoe paddle splitting the surface of Ashumet Pond, and all the way up to the further stars in space. He was kind, passionate, humble, dedicated, and loving. If there was a piece of paper, he’d draw. If there was a family member, he’d smile. If there was an airplane, one way or another, he’d make it fly. In keeping with his love of science, Baron donated his body to Harvard Medical School, and the family had a small private memorial service at their Cape Cod house in December 2017. Memorial donations can be made in Baron’s name to the Appalachian Mountain Club at 10 City Square, Boston MA 02129 or through their website at www.outdoors.org/tribute.
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Cemetery Service

Sunday, March 11, 2018

Funeral

Sunday, March 11, 2018Conway, Cahill-Brodeur Funeral Home82 Lynn StreetPeabody, MA11:00PM
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