George L. Rider ’43

George L. Rider ’43 died July 8, 2012. George graduated from McGuffey High School in Oxford, Ohio, where he was very active in football, basketball, track and tennis. At Dartmouth he majored in premed and was involved with track and field. As a junior he joined the Navy V-12 program, graduated from Dartmouth’s two-year Med School and then went on to Washington University Medical School in St. Louis, Missouri, receiving his medical degree in 1945. As a Navy officer, following his internship, he practiced in several Navy hospitals. He remained in the naval reserve until 1954. Following the war he moved to Tulare, California, where he maintained a practice in general medicine for 50 years, making house calls and delivering babies. He became chief of staff at Tulare District Hospital, where he was credited with beginning its first cardiac care program—thus becoming known as “the heart doctor.” George still found time for his two loves, golf and fishing. He was touted as that guy who could hit the golf ball further than any one else. At the Tulare Golf Course he was club champion and played in the Bing Crosby Tournament in the 1950s. While at Washington University Med School he met Shirley Nye. They were married in 1945. Shirley died in 1988; some years later he met and married Barbara Forner. They lived happily in Visalia, California, until her death in 2005. George is survived by his children Melissa and Jay. A second son, Ray, died in a tragic accident in 1970. George also leaves five grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.