GEORGE PENZEL

George Alvin Penzel, 84, of Cape Girardeau died Monday, Feb. 16, 1998, at Southeast Missouri Hospital.

He was born March 31, 1913, in Jackson, son of Alvin G. and Eula M. Miller Penzel. He and Dorothy Kies were married June 5, 1944, at Camp San Luis Obispo, Calif. She died April 22, 1997.

Penzel was a graduate of Jackson High School, attended Westminster College, and received a degree in civil engineering from the University of Missouri-Rolla in 1935. He played football at each of the schools.

He worked at U.S. Gypsum in Greenville, Miss., and at Little River Drainage District in Southeast Missouri.

Penzel attended officer training at Fort Belvoir, Va. While stationed with the U.S. Army in the Yukon Territory, he worked on the Alaskan Highway. He later served as a combat engineer in the Pacific Theater.

He retired from the Army with the rank of major, and then served in the Missouri National Guard and retired as a lieutenant colonel in 1983.

Penzel was an engineer with Cape Special Road District from 1946-88. He was a member and had been a deacon and elder at First Presbyterian Church, was a member of Professional Engineers Society and Excelsior Masonic Lodge in Jackson.

Survivors include two daughters, Carolyn Ford and Georganne Syler of Cape Girardeau; a sister, Helen Miller Ritgerod of Little Rock, Ark.; and three granddaughters.

He was preceded in death by a brother.

Friends may call at Ford and Sons Mt. Auburn Chapel from 4-8 p.m. today.

Funeral service will be at 11 a.m. Wednesday at First Presbyterian Church, with the Rev. Brendan Dempsey officiating. Entombment will be in Memorial Park Mausoleum.