George C. Ellis '33

Born August 21, 1915
Died November 27, 1991


George graduated Washington High school in 1933. He then went on to the University of Wisconsin in Madison.  He graduated with a BS degree in Education in (Speech major and English minor) in 1937. He then was an Intern Teacher at the Lake Bluff Public School in Shorewood for a year.  In 1938-39 George spend one year teaching at Norton School for Boys in Clairmont, California.  While there he developed friends among the other faculty that he maintained throughout his life. He then returned to Milwaukee to work in his father's millinery business.

Eventually he operated and owned a millinery store, "The Ellis Hat Shop" on Green Bay Avenue.  In July 1964, he closed the hat shop and took the Civil Service Exam for social worker and in October 1964 and became a social worker for the County of Milwaukee Welfare Department.  At about the same time, September 1964, George and his father Harry sold their house on Shepard Avenue and both moved to a high rise apartment on Prospect Avenue.

George retired in 1980, and did volunteer work.   He has always enjoyed and had been involved in drama, contributing to the high quality of the Milwaukee Jewish Community Players.  He is remembered for his outstanding portrales in roles in "The Diary of Anne Frank" and "Land of Milk and Honey".  He travelled extensively, travelling to Israel as early as 1955.  He has also been in Europe, to Alaska with his nephew Joel Alpert and Nancy Lefkowitz to visit George's niece Nicki Alpert McCurry, and often visited his nephew Brian Ellis in San Francisco.

George contracted cancer in 1990, in his 75th year.  After surgery he recovered and had another happy productive year.  He started his final decline in health in the late summer of 1991, and essentially having said farewell to everyone, he died peacefully on the morning of November 27, 1991,

Joel Alpert '62