|
| George R. Fullerton
|
| NO. 17417 • 13 Dec 1928 - 17 Mar 2000 |
Died 17 Mar 2000 in Washington, DC.
Cremated, inurned in Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, VA
|
ON 17 MAR 2000, the Class of '50 lost one of its younger and brighter members to pneumonia at
Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
George Rae
Fullerton's life began in Boston, MA, in 1928, when he was born to Marjorie and
Albert Fullerton. His childhood years were spent in the Boston area, where he
graduated from Roxbury Latin School and entered Harvard in 1945 at the very
young age of 16.
A year later, knowing
nothing about the Army, George arrived at Central Area to join the Long Gray
Line. At the Academy, he excelled in academics and in track & field. One of
his major interests, and an indicator of his future vocation, was his work with
the Radio Club. Upon graduation in 1950, he became a Signal Corps officer.
The year 1950 also
saw him marrying Constance Hartwell on 16 June, whom he had known since his
childhood in Boston. George and Constance had three sons ‑ Lawrence,
Donald, and James; three daughters - Leslie, Laura, and Linda; and,
eventually, 12 grandchildren.
George's early
service was with the 97th Signal Battalion in Germany, where the expanding NATO
commitment kept Signal officers very busy. In the late 1950s, he was one of the
first of his class assigned to the Pentagon, in the Office of the Chief Signal
Officer. Assignments as Signal Officer for the 38th Air Defense Artillery
Brigade in Korea and to the Computer System Command at Ft. Belvoir, VA,
ultimately led to his role as Commanding Officer of the Computer Systems
Support and Evaluation Command in Washington, DC. In that position, he laid
much groundwork for the Army’s computer usage in the years to come. It was from
that position that he retired from the Army in 1971.
Throughout his
military career, George always was learning. In addition to the usual Army
schools, he earned two master's of
science from Stanford University, one in electrical engineering and the other
in industrial engineering. While an assistant professor at the Academy, he did
graduate studies in theoretical physics at New York University ‑ while at
the same time writing and teaching a new course on theoretical physics and
introducing computers to USMA as a member of the Dean's Special Committee on
Computers in Education.
After retiring from
the Army, George and Connie settled in northern Virginia, where he joined
Computer Science Corporation as Project Director for the INFONET Division for
the next ten years. In 1981, he became Director of Contracts for the
International Division of CSC, working in Saudi Arabia during much of the time
until 1984, when he joined IBIS Corporation as Director of Contracts until
1991.
For several years
after leaving IBIS, George was a full or part‑time consultant to several
companies in a number of technical areas. He was a highly respected and
appreciated commander, leader, and coworker throughout his careers, both
military and civilian. He was once described as one of the truly outstanding
officers in the Army skilled in the field of automatic data processing. George
is remembered by those who worked for him for his sincerity, understanding,
pleasant attitude, and thoughtfulness.
He also is remembered
for his love of competitive bridge; his enjoyment of camping trips with his
family, friends, and dogs; and his hospitality at the Fullerton's Virginia
Beach summer home.
Ethical values nurtured in George's early New England childhood and at Roxbury Latin School
were strengthened during his West Point years. He instilled in all his children
a willingness to work hard, a love of education and learning, and a desire to
succeed. Three of his children are respected attorneys, the others include a
successful engineer and two outstanding university professors. George was
fiercely proud of them all.
Amid full military
honors and with bagpipes playing, George was laid to rest at Arlington National
Cemetery on 28 Mar 2000.
|
USMA 1950