George H. Northcott was my grandfather. He came to Detroit, Michigan in 1919 from London, Ontario, Canada. He was a mechanical engineer and led a group of engineers who designed and built the London Port Stanley Railroad. He also worked on the great fleet of the ore boats that plied the Great Lakes. (My father was born in Duluth, Minnesota.) The family moved to the US in search of better work opportunities. Grandpa Geroge worked for Ford Motor Company for twenty years before his retirement. Much earlier he served his new country in the Spanish-American War where he spent some time in Tampa, Florida with a tropical fever.
Grandpa George was warm-hearted, pleasant, but quite reserved. My brother and I used to love to sit at his knee and hear his stories of “the old days.”
This account was shared by Palo Alto resident, Bob Northcott.