Dr. George H. Connell, Jr. (1918 – 2014)

In 1918 my Grandmother Rita was two years old when her parents welcomed her brother George Jr. into the world. In the early 1900s, young boys wore skirted garments called frocks, which were practical for potty training and reflected a period where childhood gender distinctions were less rigid. In early photos of the siblings, it is often difficult to distinguish little Rita from George other than George’s wild and curly locks.

George grew up to have a mind for math and would go on to study both mechanical and civil engineering at the University of Rochester and the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). In 1941 he enlisted in the regular Army as an infantry private but due to his cunning personality and mechanical aptitude was eventually commissioned in the Corps of Engineers, where he served as a demolitions and explosives officer, primarily in the South Pacific where he was posted 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 back in Rochester in the fall of 1946. After his graduate studies he earned a doctorate in medical microbiology and public health and transferred to the Communicable Disease Center in Atlanta after serving six years with Army Biological Warfare Program in various positions. His next 20 years were spent in laboratory research, epidemiology, and safety engineering, primarily working in the control of communicable, mostly tropical, diseases. As a consultant to the World Health Organization, he traveled widely.  When a series of viral encephalitic diseases of unknown etiology broke out in Africa in the early 1970’s, George was given the responsibility for the design and construction of world’s first Class Four decontamination laboratory, which was completed and successfully tested at the Centers for Disease Control in 1978. In 1979 he retired and he and his wife Jeanne moved to Citrus County Florida to to live out the rest of their days fishing and leisurely consulting hospitals and lecturing at nearby Universities.

Despite all of his professional success George and his sister Rita always maintained a contentious and adversarial relationship. Both had big personalities and big egos and maybe that’s just what happens when you grow up in the spoiled brat pack of Rochester in the 1920s. In time, and particularly after the war, the mutual animosity turned to bitter rivalry and resentment over family affairs and accusations on both sides of disloyalty and callousness. Your guess as to what sad truth lay at the root of all the bitterness is as good as mine. Neither of them are around anymore to ask but, there are clues in their correspondence. Fortunately for us, folks from that generation were avid writers and George and Rita were no exception. Rita especially could be ruthless and pulled no punches in her letters. Regarding both the subject of care for their aging parents and a near fatal medical issue involving Rita’s son James, the rift between brother and sister grew to the point of eventual estrangement. There is no correspondence that exists between them after 1970. Of the letters that do exist, I have transcribed some delightfully petty and merciless back and forth from the 1960’s below. At some point George refused to receive mail from Rita and from then on George’s wife Jeanne would receive them and reply on his behalf. I’m pretty sure she despised Rita as much as George did and the feeling was mutual. It all just goes to prove that despite whatever great things we accomplish in this life, at the end of the day we are all just children playing grown up. The following letters are unaltered…