Volunteer of the Month – George & Kathie B.

We are delighted to introduce you to George B (and his wife Kathie) as our latest Volunteers of the Month.  They have been helping to deliver groceries every week in Boulder for the past three years.

George was born in 1943, and suspects that he is older than many of the people that he and Kathie help as delivery drivers for Carry-Out Caravan. He is grateful that both his mental and physical condition are still good and allows him to do volunteer work with Cultivate.

Since his father had a career as an Air Force officer, George is well-traveled and has been in 48 states (only missing Alaska and Vermont), Washington D.C., and two territories (the Virgin Islands and Guam). His dad was transferred from London, England to Keesler AFB in 1960 when he was 17, but finished his last two years in high school at Biloxi, Mississippi. He also lived in Japan with his parents.  He got his BS and MA  degrees in history from the University of Southern Mississippi. George attended ROTC when he was an undergraduate and went into the Army as a 2nd lieutenant after graduating. He went to Airborne school, the Infantry Officer Basic Course, and Ranger school at Ft. Benning, GA, and was then assigned as an infantry officer in Germany where he served ten months in Vietnam in 1968-69. He claims that graduating from the Army Ranger School was the hardest thing he had to do, and he is quite proud of that accomplishment. Because he was wounded, George could not serve a normal 12-month tour of duty and was awarded a Silver Star, a Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts.

After serving, George went back to get his MA at University of Southern Mississippi. Once he graduated, he worked a short stint at Procter & Gamble but quit and decided to take advantage of the GI Bill which enabled him to complete three years of graduate work at Vanderbilt University.

In 1975, his sister Diana got him a job teaching part-time at night at an alternative high school for dropouts in Rifle, Colorado for $3,500 (apparently he had too much education with no coaching experience to find a “real” high school history teaching job). In 1976, George got a job teaching history at Aspen High School.  He was thankful that Aspen didn’t care that he was “expensive” (he made $12,500 a year) and that they just wanted the best teacher that applied for the job!  It was also a lucky break for George because it was there that he met his future wife, Kathie, who taught French! They got married in 1985. Not only did Aspen High School get the best teacher, they got lucky because George loyally taught there for the rest of his teaching career until his retirement in 2003. During his twenty-eight-year career, he was recognized as a Woodrow Wilson Teacher Scholar award and received both the National Endowment for the Humanities Research Grant and a $10,000 Excellence in Teaching Award. In addition, he has published two history books and eleven articles!

George remains extremely humble and modest about his lifetime of achievements and does not want to be solely recognized for his medals or awards. He would like to be known more as someone who is passionate about his family, justice and equality for all and as someone who wants to help others make a difference in the world. George hopes that the legacy he is remembered for is that "He gave a damn!"

In 2007, George and Kathie moved from Aspen to Louisville to babysit their grandsons while their daughter-in-law got her MA and teaching certificate. They've lived there ever since.

Kathie was the first to volunteer with Cultivate and Carry-Out Caravan. George started volunteering because Kathie was doing deliveries by herself for a few years and, being the good and helpful husband he is, he wanted to help her and now they are a great volunteer duo! We are so fortunate to have dedicated people like Kathie and George delivering for Cultivate.  They are always willing to take extra trips to ensure that all the groceries are delivered in Boulder on Thursdays! Their positive attitudes and smiling faces make them fantastic representatives for Cultivate. We thank them both for their team work, help and positivity week after week!