Posted on Sat, Nov. 21, 2009
George A. Sargent, 94, of Haverford, a retired engineer, died Monday at home.
A native of Columbus, Ohio, Mr. Sargent earned a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from Ohio State University. For 23 years, he worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad. After leaving the railroad in 1961, he was with Ford, Bacon & Davis, an engineering and construction firm in New York City.
For more than 20 years, he commuted daily from Bryn Mawr. From his office in Lower Manhattan, he watched with a civil engineer's curiosity as the World Trade Center towers were built, his family said. His expertise in railroads and transportation led to lengthy assignments in Australia and Algeria and the Pacific Northwest. He retired in the early 1980s.
Mr. Sargent and his family spent summers on Cape Cod, where he fished and sailed. He later enjoyed visiting his grown children in Holland, England, and Baja. He loved music, especially the performances of the Schola Cantorum on Hudson. His daughter Caroline is a founding member of the New Jersey ensemble.
Mr. Sargent was married for 63 years to Margaret Kromer Sargent. The two had been co-valedictorians of their graduating class at Upper Arlington High School in Columbus. She died in 2001. He then married Dorothy Rodda.
In addition to his wife and daughter, Mr. Sargent is survived by another daughter, Mary Elizabeth "Betsy"; stepchildren Carolyn, Beverly, Gordon, and David Rodda; and six grandchildren. A son, George, died in 1998, and a daughter, Joanne, died in 1952.
A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. today at First Presbyterian Church, 5 W. Montgomery Ave., Ardmore. For more than 50 years, Mr. Sargent was a member of the church, singing in the choir and serving as an usher, and he was a trustee in the 1990s.
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