George Frederick Maxfield, Sr. (or IV) of San Antonio, Texas, who was very fond of flying and anything connected to weather, flew from us to his final destination on Tuesday, September 16, 2014. George, born on May 29, 1928 in St. Paul, Minnesota, was the third of six children of William John August Maxfield and Mary Barnhard Doolittle Maxfield. He grew up in Manchester, Iowa and Boerne, Texas.
At age 17 he joined the United States Navy Medical Corp headed for a medical career but his true desire was to fly. Immediately after his discharge he moved to San Antonio and began a 35 year career with American Airlines as an operations agent. He also worked for Nayak Aviation for 42 years, beginning as part-time and then full-time when he retired from American Airlines. With Nayak Aviation he flew the owner and clients to various destinations. When George arrived in San Antonio he found his soon to be wife, Ladell Fowler, working in the offices of American Airlines. They were married on March 13, 1949 and their union resulted in three children. Along with their private pilot’s licenses, George and his son, Terry, also had Commercial Hot Air Balloon pilot’s licenses, which gave them the opportunity to fly George’s hot air balloon, “The Rainbow Chaser,” at many hot air balloon festivals. George was very concerned about safety and often served as a safety officer for these events. George and his very good friend, Charlie Macha, had a passion for building accurate, to-scale models of old airplanes, making sure the models were precise in all details. They built “The Parker Pusher”, an early bi-plane and “The Curtiss Jenny” from 1917, both of which now hang as permanent displays in the Air Space Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. In addition they were commissioned by Conoco-Phillips to build a 1/8 scale model of the 1927 “Travel Air” that is part of the Woolaroc Museum near Bartlesville, Oklahoma. In 1996, George’s other passion, the weather, lead him to become a weather watcher for the National Weather Service which he continued until three months before he passed away. Many times local readings of temperature and rainfall in Northeast San Antonio came from George’s backyard Weather Service equipment.
George was preceded in death by his parents, brother, Bill Maxfield, sisters Teddy Harwell, Joanne Drilling, and Dorothy Cooper and his son, George F. Maxfield, Jr (or V). George is survived by a family that will miss him greatly including his sister Jessie Stevens, his wife of 65 years, Ladell Maxfield, daughter, Doreen Howell and her husband Ron, and his son, Terry Maxfield and Kathie Maxfield. In addition he is survived by five greatly-loved grandchildren, Jennifer Heath and her husband Dennis, Clark Maxfield, Kym Maxfield, April Maxfield, and Kara Howell and two great-grandsons, Breckin and Hawthorn Heath, as well as many nieces and nephews. George is probably now giving God directions about the weather.
A visitation will take place at Sunset Funeral Home Saturday September 20, 2014 at 9:00am with a graveside service to begin at 10:00 at Sunset Memorial Park.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorials in George’s name be sent to Christus Hospice, VNA at 4241 Woodcock Dr. Suite A-100, San Antonio, TX 78228.
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