George Enzmann was born in Ericsburg, Minn. on March 16, 1923, to farmers Oscar and Martha (Elbe) Enzmann, followed by his brother Ralph a year later (died 2011).
He graduated from Falls High School in International Falls, Minn., in June 1941. He then went to a trade school in Kansas City in 1942 to learn to become an aircraft mechanic.
During the war he worked at Consolidated Aircraft in Fort Worth, Texas, as a draftsman working on the B30 bomber.
In 1944, he started attending the University of Minnesota studying engineering and graduated in June 1948 with a degree in aeronautical engineering.
He moved to Seattle to take a job at Boeing in August 1948, working as a stress analyst.
He joined the Mountaineers shortly after moving to Seattle and climbed Mount Rainier, Mount Adams, Mount Baker and Mount St. Helens, among others. He also was an avid sailor and skier.
He joined a local folk dancing group where he met his future wife, Janet Rogers, and they married in February 1954.
Nine months and two weeks later his first child, Heidi, was born followed by a son, Andrew, in 1956.
He moved to Alamo, Calif., in 1959 to work for Sandia Corp. and received his masters degree in civil engineering from UC Berkeley in 1960.
He worked at Convair (General Dynamics) in San Diego from 1961-1965, where he worked on the Saturn rocket project.
His son Andrew was tragically killed in a skateboard accident in 1964. He returned to Seattle and Boeing in 1965 and worked on the SST project.
His son Edward was born in 1967 in Edmonds. The family moved to Meadowdale shortly thereafter where he designed and built a trimaran, “Trifle,” and a catamaran, “MyCat.”
After the massive layoffs at Boeing in 1970-71, he moved to Seal Beach, Calif., and worked at various companies but returned to Seattle and Boeing in 1974 and worked on the 747.
After another layoff, he moved back to California to Fountain Valley and worked for Northrup on the Stealth bomber and other projects from 1976-1990.
At this time he discovered land sailing and raced on several of the dry lake beds in California and Nevada.
He retired in 1990 and moved to the lovely town of Coupeville on Whidbey Island in 1991.
Janet became a (very) active volunteer with the local museum, library, crafts fair organization and others, and George became known for long daily walks, playing ping pong at the senior center and maintaining a large garden.
He also enjoyed playing duplicate bridge and following the stock market.
George passed away on May 26, 2015, after a long battle with skin cancer.
He is survived by his daughter Heidi Enzmann Ontiveros, his son Edward George Enzmann and two granddaughters, Celia Jane Ontiveros and Abigail Elsie Enzmann.
