George Brothers was the surviving spouse of Rev. Emily Brothers.
George Beatty Brothers, of Assawoman, VA, passed away on December 20, 2024 at his residence. He was 90 years old.
Born in Battlesburg, OH July 15, 1934, to the late Beatty Whitacre Brothers and Isabel Blanche Brothers (Klotz), George spent his childhood on Willowbend Farm, his family home. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Education with a concentration in Chemistry at The Ohio State University in 1956 and taught high school chemistry for seven years at Lincoln High School in Canton, OH. He later completed a National Science Foundation Fellowship in Chemistry and Physics at American University and earned his Master of Education at the University of Virginia.
During his last semester at Ohio State, George’s sister introduced him to her friend and classmate, Emily. George and Emily were placed beside one another during a group trip to Cleveland and he was so “impressed” (his words), that he began writing to her weekly. During a date at the Franklin County Fair, George won a carnival game and asked Emily to select the prize. She chose a small clown figurine to represent George’s playful wit and cheerful demeanor. They were wed at his home church, Malvern United Methodist, in September 1957 and were happily married for 62 years.
In 1964, George was offered a teaching position with University of Virginia Eastern Shore Branch Campus adjacent to NASA Wallops Station along with the opportunity to establish an in-house analytical chemistry lab at Wallops Station. Later, through his company Chemal, George worked as a contractor for NASA and was responsible for preparing, calibrating, and analyzing data from the lab’s balloon borne ozone monitoring system, routine rocket fuel component analyses, and numerous other projects. George’s research took him around the world and he completed scientific studies on the Earth’s ozone in Europe, South America, Africa, the Shetland Islands, Ascension Island, and Antarctica. In 2018, he earned special recognition from NASA for his 40+ years of research on the Earth’s ozone. Read more…