1918
George
2014
George H. Connell
January 9, 1918 — September 5, 2014
Dr. George H. Connell died on September 5, 2014 at HPH Hospice House.
He was born in Rochester, NY on January 9, 1918, and was trained in both mechanical and civil engineering at the University of Rochester and the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). He enlisted in the regular Army as an infantry private in 1941, and was commissioned in the Corps of Engineers the following year, where he served as a demolitions and explosives officer, primarily in the South Pacific until the end of WWII. His next assignment was demolition work in Japan. He returned to the United States in March of 1946, and was employed by the New York State engineering department until he entered medical school that fall which was followed by graduate school, where he earned a doctorate in medical microbiology and public health. He transferred to the Communicable Disease Center in Atlanta after serving six years with Army Biological Warfare Program in various positions, and spent the next 20 years in laboratory research, epidemiology, and safety engineering, primarily working in the control of communicable, mostly tropical, diseases. Dr. Connell was also a consultant to the World Health Organization during this period, and traveled widely in his work with that organization. When a series of viral encephalitic diseases of unknown etiology broke out in Africa in the early 1970’s, Dr. Connell was given the responsibility for the design and construction of the free world’s first Class Four decontamination laboratory, which was completed and successfully tested at the Centers for Disease Control in 1978, after which Dr. Connell retired, and returned to school at Lanier Technical Institute. In 1979 the Connells moved to Citrus County, FL. (near Inglis). Dr. Connell leaves behind his wife, Jeannine, of Athena, Oregon, who like him has been an avid life-long fisherman. Cremation has been arranged with no public services, with interment at the Florida National Cemetery in Bushnell, FL.
He was born in Rochester, NY on January 9, 1918, and was trained in both mechanical and civil engineering at the University of Rochester and the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). He enlisted in the regular Army as an infantry private in 1941, and was commissioned in the Corps of Engineers the following year, where he served as a demolitions and explosives officer, primarily in the South Pacific until the end of WWII. His next assignment was demolition work in Japan. He returned to the United States in March of 1946, and was employed by the New York State engineering department until he entered medical school that fall which was followed by graduate school, where he earned a doctorate in medical microbiology and public health. He transferred to the Communicable Disease Center in Atlanta after serving six years with Army Biological Warfare Program in various positions, and spent the next 20 years in laboratory research, epidemiology, and safety engineering, primarily working in the control of communicable, mostly tropical, diseases. Dr. Connell was also a consultant to the World Health Organization during this period, and traveled widely in his work with that organization. When a series of viral encephalitic diseases of unknown etiology broke out in Africa in the early 1970’s, Dr. Connell was given the responsibility for the design and construction of the free world’s first Class Four decontamination laboratory, which was completed and successfully tested at the Centers for Disease Control in 1978, after which Dr. Connell retired, and returned to school at Lanier Technical Institute. In 1979 the Connells moved to Citrus County, FL. (near Inglis). Dr. Connell leaves behind his wife, Jeannine, of Athena, Oregon, who like him has been an avid life-long fisherman. Cremation has been arranged with no public services, with interment at the Florida National Cemetery in Bushnell, FL.
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