George Albert Rueff

Their story

The life behind the memories

George Albert Rueff was my father.

He was born on December 29, 1936, into the Rueff family of Decatur, Illinois. His parents were George Rueff and Marie Fitzgerrel Rueff, and he grew up with his brothers and sisters, including Ellen Marie, Paul Eugene, Elizabeth “Betty” Mae, and Lillian Maxine.

As a young man, George served in the United States Air Force and spent time stationed at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. That part of his life is something I wish I knew more about — the people he served with, the work he did, and the experiences he had while he was there.

George later married Marcia Katherine Fritz, whose family came from New Minas, Nova Scotia.

His life was far too short. George died in or near Decatur, Illinois, in September 1966. He was only 29 years old.

Because he died so young, there are many things about my father that I will probably never know. Records can give me dates, names, and places, but they cannot tell me what made him laugh, what kind of stories he told, what music he liked, or what he hoped his life would become.

Those are the things I wish I could ask him.

What I do know is that he was my father, and that alone gives him an important place in my life and in my family’s story.

I have spent time trying to learn more about him through family records, old photographs, and the pieces of information that have survived over the years. Every new detail helps make him feel a little less like a name from the past and a little more like the man he really was.

George Albert Rueff’s life may have been short, but his story did not end in 1966.

It continued through his family.

It continued through me.

And as long as his name, his photographs, and his story are remembered, a part of him remains with us.