George William Thurston ’42 died on June 26, 2005, in Machias, Maine.

Born in May 2, 1920, in Steuben, he prepared for college at New Haven (CT) High School and became a member of Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity at Bowdoin. Following his graduation in 1942, he served in the U.S. Army Air Forces from 1942 to 1946 during World War II, attaining the rank of staff sergeant. After teaching for a year at Calais High School, he did graduate work at the University of Maine and the University of Pennsylvania. He was for some years principal of Sumner Memorial High School in Sullivan, and in 1965 he joined the faculty at Washington State College in Machias, which later became the University of Maine at Machias, where he taught social studies and Maine and local history until his retirement in 1985. For 20 years, he was also the head counselor at Camp Tall Timbers in Casco. Surviving are his wife, Ruth Smart Thurston, whom he married in 1951; a son, Thomas W. Thurston of Spokane, WA; five daughters, Margaret H. Thurston of Edgewater, MD, Elizabeth C. Thurston of Cape Elizabeth, Catherine M. Korredes of Brewer, Ellen M. Bourett of Newark, DE, and Sarah J. Thurston of Maynard, MA; six grandchildren; a great-granddaughter; and two brothers, David H. Thurston of Clio, MI, and Richard Thurston of Steuben.