George Quinlan

George Earl Quinlan was the son of Edward William Quinlan and Anna Monroe. He was born on November 2, 1907 in Kansas, and married Mary Hazel Stapel. Their children were Colette Quinlan, Richard Quinlan and Georgia Mary Ann Quinlan.

Courtesy of the Quinlan Reunion album:

George Earl Quinlan, first child of Edward William and Anna Monroe was born November 1, 1908 
in Saint Marys Kansas.  He graduated eighth grade from Saint Mary’s School in Kansas.  He left 
the family farm and went to work for the Santa Fe Railroad as an apprentice machinist and 
worked there from 1926 until 1931.  He was laid off because of the depression.  He also worked
for the Stapel Grocery Store, where he met his wife Mary Hazel Stapel.  They married on
September 25, 1928 in Topeka, Kansas.

George went into politics and became the first Democratic Deputy County Clerk in Shawnee
County, Kansas.  He held this position form 1934 to 1937 and then became Tax Assessor for
about a year.  He then became a salesman for communication systems and would travel and would
be gone for many days at a time.  In 1941 he decided to go to California and worked for Hughes
Aircraft and then for Bethlehem Steel in San Francisco.  He eventually returned to work for
the Santa Fe in Bakersfield, California and was their roundhouse foreman for the next sixteen
years.  

George and Hazel decided to move north to Livermore and there he took a job as a machinist at
the Lawrence Livermore National Radiation Laboratory.  He had top security clearance to work
on war ammunitions.  He worked there until his retirement in 1970.  George also loved to read
and recite long poems just like his father, Edward.  George was articulate and interesting,
however he enjoyed a “pint” a little too often… An Irish trait?