Rash's Surname Index
Notes for George Howard 4th EARLE
Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA) - June 1, 1992
Deceased Name: GEORGE H. EARLE 4TH, OF PA. POLITICAL FAMILY
George H. Earle 4th, 75, member of a prominent Pennsylvania political family who was a banker, Navy flier and gentleman farmer, died early yesterday in Reading, Vt., where he had lived for 20 years.
Formerly of Valley Forge and Haverford, Mr. Earle was the son of George H. Earle 3d, who was governor of Pennsylvania in the Depression years between 1935 and 1939.
Mr. Earle spent part of his adolescence in Vienna, where his father was ambassador before being elected governor. He left Harvard College to serve as assistant secretary of the commonwealth in his father's administration, then followed him to Bulgaria, where President Roosevelt sent the elder Earle as ambassador after his gubernatorial term was over.
A graduate of St. George's School in Newport, R.I., Mr. Earle never got his college degree. After war broke out in Europe, he joined the Royal Air Force as a pilot and volunteered for the U.S. Navy in 1941. He became a flight instructor and, after the United States entered the war, flew PBY seaplanes, large "flying boats" that utilized the then highly secret radar technology to search out enemy submarines in the Atlantic and Caribbean.
In 1943, his squadron was transferred to the Aleutian Islands, where Mr. Earle led bombing and strafing missions over Japanese-held Kuril Island. After the war ended, he was a test pilot at the Naval Aircraft Factory in Philadelphia.
At least one of his duties troubled him. In 1981, as concern about the environment and hazardous dumping intensified, he disclosed that, on Navy orders, he had dropped radioactive waste off the New Jersey coast 33 years before. The Navy, however, did not admit to any such action or try to retrieve the material.
"He got upset, but it was one of those things the Navy refused to acknowledge," said his son, George H. Earle 5th.
After his Navy career, most of his professional life was spent in banking. He worked for Provident Bank for many years, retiring as a vice president and moving to Vermont in the early 1970s.
There, he lived the life of a gentleman farmer. "He loved goats, sheep and bulldogs," his son said.
In 1952, he was Pennsylvania chairman of Democrats for Eisenhower, but otherwise shunned politics, unlike several of his brothers. Ralph Earle was an assistant secretary of defense in the Kennedy administration, and Hubert Earle is a judge.
Mr. Earle was an avid hunter and sailor, and a member of the Corinthian Yacht Club in Essington and the St. Regis Yacht Club in Upper St. Regis, N.Y. He founded the now-defunct White Pigeon Club, a hunting club. When the family moved from Valley Forge, Mr. Earle donated several acres to the Devon Little League, which still has fields there.
"He was a great historian. He could talk about any subject," said his son. "He would read four and five novels a week." Every year, he went back to visit Vienna, his son said.
In addition to his son, he is survived by a daughter, Huberta Yaron; 10 grandchildren; four brothers, and a sister. Another daughter, Mary Earle Shedd, died in 1984.
A graveside service will be held at Bailey's Mill Cemetery in Reading at noon Wednesday. Instead of flowers, donations can be sent to St. George's School in Newport, R.I.
Copyright (c) 1992 The Philadelphia Inquirer
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