George G. Koerber (1924-2008)

KOERBER, JACKSON, SCHWAB, MURPHY, MURRAY, THOMAS

Posted By: Ames Tribune
Date: 7/25/2008 at 14:17:09

THE AMES TRIBUNE, Ames, Story County, Iowa, Friday, July 25, 2008.

George G. Koerber, formerly of Sequim, Wash., and Ames, died Saturday, July 19, in Appleton, Wis., at his son Greg's home.

George was born in 1924 in Akron, Ohio. He served in the U.S. Army in the Philippines late in World War II, and returned to obtain a bachelor's degree from Hiram College in 1948 on the GI Bill. While working toward master's and doctoral degrees at Purdue University, he met his future wife, Barbara A. Jackson, of Indianapolis. They married in 1951, and raised three children.

After holding varied positions in business and academia, he taught at Iowa State University from 1959 to 1983, retiring as a full professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering. In Ames, he was on the publication board of the Iowa State Daily and the Story County Zoning Board and was active in Unitarian Fellowship.

He and his young family spent many summers camping throughout the American west, and they came to love the Olympic Peninsula for its natural beauty and seashore. George and Barbara retired to Sequim in 1983. He was a member of a local hiking club, he volunteered at the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge and was a member of the local Unitarian Church.

He had a strong commitment to social justice, and championed the cause of Latin American people harmed by U.S. policies. In his mid-1970s, he spent three weeks in rural Guatemala as part of an international presence to support locals from harm from their oppressive government. He was known to his friends and family as a freethinking, wide-ranging intellectual who challenged dogma while respecting the rights of others to their opinions.

He was preceded in death by his wife Barbara last year.

He is survived by his three loving children, Anne (Gary Schwab), of Oak Park, Ill., Laura (Paul Murphy), of Shelton, Wash., and Greg (Mary Murray), of Appleton Wis.; two grandchildren, Katherine, of San Francisco, and Emily, of Minneapolis; and one sister, Marcile Thomas, of San Gabriel, Calif.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to Planned Parenthood.

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