George, W. C. (Wesley Critz), 1888-1982

Wesley Critz George was professor of histology and embryology and chair of the Anatomy Department, University of North Carolina Medical School, and an internationally recognized researcher on the genetics of race.

Wesley Critz George was born on 28 August 1888 in Yadkin County, N.C., the son of Thomas Miller (b. 1852) and Mary Critz George. George's father had been a school teacher in Courtney, N.C., until he moved the family to Missouri, where he opened a hardware store. Around 1900, the family moved back to Yadkin County, where they farmed on 160 acres of land and built a private school. The school was soon given up, however, because there were few people in the neighborhood who could afford to pay tuition. After a brief tenure as principal of a school in Elkin, N.C., George's father bought a newspaper and printing business there. He operated these businesses until around 1920, when poor health forced him into retirement.

George's formal education began in the family's private school and continued in public schools in Missouri and Elkin. By the time he reached the University of North Carolina in 1907, George had already taught public school for a year in Cabarrus County, N.C. While a student at UNC, George worked in the University's print shop, setting English and Greek type while studying classics. Entering graduate school at UNC, however, George switched to the sciences, earning an A.M. degree in 1912 and a Ph.D. in 1918.

When a hernia kept George out of active service during World War I, he accepted a graduate fellowship with embryologist E. G. Compton at Princeton. He later served as part of a neurological study team at Walter Reed General Hospital in Washington, D.C. After the war, George held short-term teaching positions at several colleges until 1920, when he returned to UNC as associate professor of histology and embryology in the Medical School, specializing in embryology and comparative hematology. Much of his research centered on blood studies of tunicates and molluscs. In 1924, he became full professor and, in 1940, head of the Department of Anatomy. He became professor emeritus in 1961.

George married Wilma Kirk Green of Monroe, N.C., in 1926. The couple had one daughter, Patricia Ann. After a long illness, George died on 29 October 1982 in Southern Pines, N.C.