George Ambrose McCalpin Jr.

George was born December 4, 1923, in St. Louis, Missouri, to George A. McCalpin, Sr. and Marguerite Miles McCalpin. He had an older brother, Bill and a younger sister, Mary Margaret. He grew up in a house just two houses down from the Catholic church and school and next door to the priest’s house. This proximity, and his mother, were the reasons that he spent much of his early years as an altar boy. He would tell the story that when he heard the priests’ door slam, he knew it was time for him to go or he’d be late! But being the most-requested altar server had its perks. He often got called out of class to help serve, which made him the envy of all of the others in the class!

George not only had a wicked sense of humor, but was also very intelligent. He often joked that even though he flunked blocks in kindergarten, he was then able to skip second and fourth grades. He graduated from St. Louis University High School at 16 and then went on to St. Louis University.

In 1941, three days after his 18th birthday, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. George registered for the draft and continued his schooling. As 1942 progressed, the war occupied everyone’s thoughts. In January 1943, when all allowable absences for classes had been used up, George went to the Draft Board to ask when he would be called up. Not surprisingly, the draft notice came days later and in February 1943, George was inducted into the US Army at Jefferson Barracks.

Based on George’s AGCT and his school subjects, he was assigned to Ft. Leonard Wood, a new Army training camp in central Missouri, near Waynesville/St. Robert. When basic training was completed, George was assigned to the 35th Engineer Regiment.

At first, George spent time in Canada working on the CANOL project, a project to build the road which would enable a pipeline to be laid from Norman Wells in the Northwest Territories to Whitehorse, Yukon, to supply fuel to airfields in Alaska and northwestern Canada in order to ferry lend-lease planes to Russia.

After Canada, he was sent to Camp White in Oregon, where they went through Basic again because they had been out of the country. Then the 35th was split into two battalions: the 35th and the 145th. George remained with the 35th Engineer Combat Battalion, and on April 9th, 1943 the battalion was sent to Camp Shanks in New York to await deployment overseas. Fortunately for George, his time there was extended, so his Company didn’t land on Omaha Beach until August 9th.

By October 1944, George's company was sent to Luxembourg and billeted in Mersch, about thirty miles southeast of Bastogne. When the German Army began the Battle of the Bulge, all the engineer companies in the area were recalled to Bastogne to defend VIII Corps headquarters, as these engineers constituted most of the reserves of the Corps. George's company was moved to Marvie to be part of Bastogne's perimeter defense, about two miles east of Bastogne itself. George's company stayed in this position until relieved by Engineers of the 101st Airborne and then the company spent the night in Bastogne. The company moved out of Bastogne about six hours before the town was surrounded by German forces.

In March 1945, George's unit ferried troops of the 87th Infantry across the Rhine River. Unfortunately, the nighttime crossing was discovered by lookouts on the other side of the river, and the heavy German machine gun fire resulted in some 34 engineers being killed, wounded or missing in action. George was made a squad sergeant as a result of these casualties.

After the war ended in Europe in May 1945, George was relocated to Marseilles, where a fellow St. Louis native got him an assignment in a typing pool and later was given the job of approving ‘Compassionate Leaves and Furloughs’ for GIs eligible to return home but who had relatives in Europe. George returned to the US on his birthday, December 4th, 1945.

After returning home, George resumed his life where he left off. He continued his education at St. Louis University in 1945 and graduated with a B.S. in Mathematics in 1947. He also continued dating his sweetheart Dorothy “Dot” Schulte. They married in April 1948 in St. Louis.

Following the wedding, George and his bride moved to Texas to take a job as a petroleum geophysicist with Sun Oil Company. After a short stop in San Angelo, they ended up in Beaumont. Over the next 17 years, all six of their children would be born. In 1965, George was transferred to the Sun Oil Company laboratory in Richardson, Texas. George and Dot brought the six children to the new home that they built in the Canyon Creek section of the City, where they lived together for the next 45 years until Dot's passing in 2011.

After 35 years with Sun Oil Company, George took an early retirement package at the age of 59. He spent the next 22 years as Dot’s #1 photography assistant for their business, McCalpin Photography. After over 500 weddings and countless family and company portraits, George retired once more at the age of 82. Now George had even more time to spend on his favorite hobby, golf. He often joked that when he shot less than his age, an 87 at the age 89, he knew it couldn’t get any better than that and he put away the clubs for good!

George was an active member of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists, serving in many different roles and serving as the general chairman of the Seventy-Third Annual Meeting in 2003. He was on the Board of Trustees of what is now Prestige Community Credit Union (eventually serving as Chairman), and served on the Dallas County Juvenile Board.

Even though George had many stories during his years in the Army, his experience at the Battle of the Bulge provided some of his most memorable experiences in the last five years of his life. In December 2019, George and Tricia went to Belgium and Luxembourg with the National WWII Museum in New Orleans to commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge. What an experience and honor! It was through that experience that George made so many friends that he was extremely grateful for. Through these friendships he was given many more memorable opportunities, from being flown to the WWII Museum in New Orleans to be a special guest at the 20th Anniversary of the Band of Brothers to being flown again to New Orleans to be a special guest at the 16th International Conference on WWII to celebrate his 100th birthday!

After Dot passed away in 2011, George continued to live in their house in Richardson. When the idea of moving was brought up, he told his children many times that he would only leave the house “feet first”. When being taken away on Monday, we made sure he was heading in the right direction. We all knew he would appreciate the sentiment. We will not only miss him, but we’ll all miss his exceptional sense of humor!

George was preceded in death by his parents George, Sr. and Marguerite (Miles), his brother Bill and his sister, Mary Margaret (Moss). George is survived by daughters Peggy (Joe Clark) and Tricia (Ed Stefanko), sons Jim, Bill (Chris Halicki), John (Melyssa Fratkin), and Michael (Julie), and ten grandchildren Erin Clark Petterson (Mark), Kevin Clark (Lynn), Allison Clark (Rafael), Nicholas Stefanko, Amy Stefanko, Alex Stefanko (Mercedez), Style McCalpin, Kenneth McCalpin, Reid McCalpin, and Eleanor McCalpin, and five great grandchildren, Austin Clark, Lauren Clark, Gabriel Castillo, Camila Castillo and Ozzi Stefanko, and his 5 goldfish.

Visitation will be from 9:00 am to 9:45 am on Tuesday morning October 1, 2024 at St. Mark the Evangelist Catholic Church, 1201 Alma Dr., Plano, TX 75075, and the funeral Mass will be held immediately following at 10:00 am, officiated by Monsignor Milam Joseph. This will be followed by interment and a service with military honors at Restland Funeral Home & Cemetery, 13005 Greenville Ave, Dallas, TX 75243, where he will be laid to rest next to his late wife, Dot.

In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to one of George’s favorite organizations, the National World War II Museum in New Orleans or the National WASP WWII Museum in Sweetwater.