LONG-serving Linden table tennis coach Milton George was laid to rest yesterday at the Christianburg Cemetery after a simple but significant church service at the St Aidan’s Anglican Church on Burnham Drive, Wismar, Linden. Among those who paid tribute to him was Regional Chairman Mortimer Mingo who described the late George as a man who made “great personal sacrifice” towards table tennis coaching in the region, and a “man of humility and sincerity” who was very approachable.
Described as a versatile man who was also an athlete and singer, George died at the age of 74 and was referred to as an icon by Mingo among the table tennis fraternity as he, over the past forty years in Linden, had contributed tremendously towards the development of the sport in general and particularly among the younger generation.
George passed away last Wednesday night by drowning after attending a wake in Retrieve, Mackenzie. On his way home he fell into the Kara Kara Creek.
Milton George was born to Nora Forde and Milton Clifford George in Georgetown where he lived up to the late 1960s before coming to live in Linden with his mother and stepfather.
George attended the St Philip’s Anglican Church and was a member of the Mildred Mansfield Youth Club.
He joined the St Aidan’s Anglican Church on Burnham Drive Wismar, Linden and was the Church Choir Master.
In the eulogy read by his cousin Villy Easton, it was mentioned that George by his lifestyle “appeared to be a ‘Lone Ranger’ as he lived with his mother in Linden but he was a church member of ‘regular standing’.
While George was able to land a job with the bauxite industry Guybau in its Mechanical Department, in the early 1970s, it was his exploits as a player/coach, which endeared him to the people of Linden and Region 10.
George is credited in turning out a number of table tennis champions from the bauxite town and with forming the Linden Table Tennis Association.