GEORGE EDGAR

Age: 79 (turns 80 on Sunday, October 30, 2011.)

Background: Born in 1931 in Arlington, NE, the son of a Methodist minister. In 1941 father was assigned to Nebraska Wesleyan University as Director of Public Relations. In January of 1946 family moved to Cozad, Neb., where he graduated from high school in 1950. Enrolled at Nebraska Wesleyan and graduated in 1956 with a physics major and a math minor. In the middle of college years spent 1952-'54 in the Army serving as a supply sergeant at Fort Leonard Wood, MO. During his senior year served as a Student Pastor at Palmyra, NE.  Graduated in
1959 from Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University
(SMU) in Texas with a Masters Degree in Sacred Theology, then completed one year of Clinical Pastoral Education at the Texas Medical Center in Houston, TX.

Profession: Returned to Lincoln in May 1960. Worked five years as first clinically trained chaplain at Bryan Memorial Hospital, and then became the first clinically trained chaplain at the Lincoln Regional Center. In 1974, hired by Region V Mental Health & Alcoholism as its first Regional Administrator and worked five years there before being hired as state director of Community Mental Health at the Department of Public Institutions.  The last six years of his career he worked at Region VI Mental Health and Substance Abuse in Omaha, where he set up and coordinated a psychiatric crisis program and supervised a community support system. Retired in January 1996.

Family:  He and wife of 54 years, De, have son Jay, who has a landscaping business and lives in Prairie Home, NE, and son Marc, who lives in Albany, NY, and works as an engineer for General Electric at their Center for Research and Development. The couple lost a daughter
(Tara) when she was 37. Three grandchildren, two in New York, one in Lincoln.

The Master Gardener: Well known for his Neighborhood Garden columns in the Neighborhood Extra. Has coordinated the column each week since March 2004, rotating writing chores with Gladys Jeurink.  Recently finished 15th summer as a Master Gardener and working part-time at the Earl May Garden Center east of 70th and O streets. For Earl May he and the store manager do a call in radio program, "In the Garden," every other Saturday on KFOR 1240, and answers the phone for Backyard Farmer on Nebraska Public Television. At home, cares for the lawn and pond that has seven different colors of hardy water lilies and two different varieties of hardy water Lotus including a native Lotus. His wife plants and takes care of the flowers, shrubs, and her vegetable garden. She always has many beautiful containers of flowers in the summer. George has a small orchard and a large vegetable and berry garden next door thanks to a generous neighbor.
Activities: Member of the Lincoln Garden Club and the Association of Retired Methodist Ministers and Spouses of Nebraska. Has taught an adult Sunday school class for more than 40 years at Christ United Methodist Church, 45th and A streets.