BOMBER MEMORIAL
GEORGE SIGFRIED ROKKAN ~ Class of 1966
May 31, 1948 - May 2, 1991
~
George S. Rokkan has found the peace and rest he longed for. Born in Richland on May 31, 1948, he departed this life on May 2, 1991, at his home in Richland.
He was the deeply loved and treasured son of Bill and Ellen Rokkan of Richland. His younger brother, Don Rokkan ('68), also lives in Richland. An older sister, Jan who was born in 1945, graced her family but for seven days.
George's nieces, Keila and Lainey Rokkan of Seattle, were his heart's bright and precious jewels.
George spent almost all of his life in Richland where he attended Spalding Elementary School, Chief Jo Junior High School and graduated with the Class of 1966 from Richland's Columbia High School.
In 1971, he earned a degree in architecture, with distinction, from Washington State University. Following college, George began what was to become a career in the nuclear field. As a project engineer, he devoted the past 17 years to the Department of Energy. Before that he served with Vitro, United Engineers, Burns and Roe and J. A. Jones.
He excelled at and relished managing large construction projects, receiving upon their completion a purposeful sense of achievement, his favorite reward.
On his own time, he was a volunteer Benton County Deputy Sheriff, managed and played on softball teams, assisted with youth football programs, collected antique tools, pampered his pet Schnauzers and went skiing as often as he could, being skilled on the water and on snow.
George was uniquely complex. Even though illness cruelly depleted him at times, in his job he still exuded the reputation of one who tolerated no artificiality or catering to political ambition or wastefulness or shirking from supporting what he felt were the best solutions to problems, regardless of who might object to his candor.
By no means, however, did his tough professional image define him completely. George was an exceptionally private person, and only a fortunate few ever glimpsed his truest heart and inner thoughts.
Those who did viewed a man of unsurpassed generosity, loyalty, sensitivity, and desire to love and to be loved. Because he possessed these virtues in abundance, he anguished over the evident paucity of them in our world, struggling to comprehend fully the greater design that intelligently might have need of this condition.
He earnestly hoped for a just explanation to our travails and his, one that would unfailingly heal all hurt and give freely unending joy. Perhaps, now, his hope is realized.
"We will always love you and be proud of you and benefit by your life that is inextricably blended with ours. And we will miss you terribly until we are with you again, dearest son and brother and uncle and friend."
Funeral services for George were at 1pm on Wednesday, May 8, 1991, at Einan's Funeral Home. Interment followed at Sunset Memorial Gardens.
Published in the Tri-City Herald on May 6, 1991.
Bomber Memorial put together by Shirley COLLINGS Haskins ('66).