By Joseph Fagan 

One West Orange resident has discovered aging is only a mere state of mind. His secret to remaining young began as a defining moment in his early life. Poetry emerged as a driving force giving him a sense of purpose that today is at the very core of his being.

Richard George was born on January 27, 1919 in Maidenhead in Berkshire, England following the first world war. He will turn 91 next Wednesday and I recently sat down with him to hear more about his amazing journey through time. I was welcomed with a broad smile and a firm handshake as I entered his world. A home handsomely decorated and filled with his treasured belongings gathered from around the world on a road less traveled. Simple but stunning everyday items that bear witness to a life well lived. I was immediately captivated by a kind gentleman overflowing with old world English charm. His cheerful and polite personality cleverly disguise his aging body behind a mischievous school boy grin. He is by no means oblivious nor concerned about his own mortality but is clearly grateful for the blessings in his life. He proudly credits his longevity to his poetry which defines who he is. His interest in writing was encouraged at a tender age by his teacher Miss Bateman. But it wasn’t until age 21 when he literally stumbled upon a life changing event under most tragic and horrific circumstances.

In 1939 at the outbreak of the second world war Richard George found himself a soldier of the Royal Artillery in Britain's territorial army. In the early stages of the war he helped defend the Maginot Line fortifications in France on the border with Germany. In 1940 he escaped with his life when 330,000 troops were driven into the sea at Dunkirk, France and evacuated across the English Channel to Dover, England. After that near disaster Richard trained in jungle warfare and was reassigned to defend India from the Japanese. He personally described for me the hardships he faced dragging howitzers through the mud in unbearable heat. In 1944 Richard fought in the Battle of Kohima in eastern India. It was a small town where a significant victory halted the Japanese advance. During the battle a British infantry regiment known as the Royal Scots had to quickly advance leaving behind those killed where they fell in hastily dug graves. Richard’s regiment followed behind and soon entered the devested and smoldering ruins of the village. He came upon a grave of one of the soldiers and saw the man’s hands still exposed. He suddenly became overcome with quiet emotion and could not advance as he knelt down to gently cover the hands of a fallen comrade. That night he set to words a profoundly poignant outpouring of his feelings in a poem entitled " These Hands". For him it unleashed a lifetime of emotion still painfully vivid with stirring sentiment as he recited it for me some seventy years later. The poem so captured the hearts of his countrymen Field Marshall Earl Wavell, once the Viceroy of India, awarded Richard George the Viceroy’s Price for Poetry.

Following the war Richard first came to West Orange as an exchange teacher in 1950 under the Fulbright Plan. Richard taught English at the former Fairmount School now since demolished. After his exchange year he taught in Hong Kong and returned to West Orange in 1954 and soon became an American citizen. He taught for many years at the former private Carteret School once located on Prospect Avenue. He lived at the 30 acre Loree Estate which once adjoined the school grounds to the north. Afterwards he taught at Columbia High School in Maplewood and lived in East Orange briefly before permanently relocating to West Orange. He retired from teaching in 1987 and has lived in his current West Orange home for more then forty years. Ironically his home is within a stone’s throw of the former Fairmount School, now senior citizen housing, which first bought him to West Orange in 1950.

Although Richard never married he is quick to point out that he is hardly alone. He is surrounded by a lifetime of memories that provide him with daily inspiration. His life’s work has been devoted to writing and poetry perhaps all inspired by that fateful day in 1944. From that day forward his countless works have been published in various anthologies and periodicals on both sides of the Atlantic. Several milestones for Richard still lie ahead for 2010 as his work continues to be written and published. Reading the eloquent expressions of our world as seen through his eyes however cannot surpass his harmonious persona which truly embodies the essence of beautiful poetry.