Indianola mourning former fire chief, restaurant owner

LAVISTA -- Indianola's former fire chief, George Cornwell, died Monday of complications of diabetes.

Services for Cornwell, 55, are Thursday in LaVista. He also once owned Indianola's Rocket Inn.

"George was a good community leader," said Indianola Mayor Mike Harris. "He was a good guy," said Tom Davidson, who became fire chief when George and his wife, Sue, moved to LaVista -- back home to Omaha -- in December 1998.

Harris said George was responsible for a lot of good things at Indianola's fire department. "George started the pickle card sales that raised a lot of money for the fire department," Davidson said. "We bought lots of equipment, and even trucks, with those funds."

Joe Blankenship of Scottsbluff, formerly of Indianola, said he and George worked together on the fire department for eight or nine years. "George was always there for the Indianola fire department," Blankenship said. "Every function, every emergency call."

"Indianola's fire department wouldn't be what it is today without George and his foresight," Blankenship said.

Davidson said Cornwell was responsible for recruiting most of the community's firefighters and for training most of the department's EMTs. "Anyone who walked into the Rocket (Inn) was fair game for George's recruiting," Davidson chuckled. "Yeah, he recruited me."

Tim Lord of Indianola was another of George's recruits. "He told me, 'Just be a fireman,' and a month later, he says, 'You can be an EMT, too,'," Lord said. He chuckled, "Yeah, George had a way of talking you into whatever he needed."

Lord said, "He's the reason I'm where I am today, on the fire department and an EMT."

Through the Rocket Inn, Harris said, George and Sue supported many kids' activities, Boy and Girl Scouts and 4-H.

"He was a good family man," Harris said, "and was very involved in his church."

"George was so friendly," Harris said. "He knew everyone and everyone's family."

George and Sue moved to Indianola from Omaha in June 1973, when they bought the Rocket Inn. George joined the fire department right away, and he and Sue became very involved in community activities.

George served as a member of the Republican Valley Schools Board of Education from 1987 until 1993, and was named "Businessman of the Year" in 1974, by the Greater McCook Area Chamber of Commerce.

Services for Cornwell are 10 a.m., Thursday, at Bethany Funeral Home Chapel in LaVista. Interment will be in Pleasant Hill Cemetery. The family plans a memorial service, tentatively scheduled Oct. 16, in Indianola.

George is survived by his wife, Sue; his daughter, Christine and special friend, Jim Schultz, of Boone, Iowa, and their daughters, Tatia and Jasmine; his sons, George III and Annie of Gothenburg, who are expecting a child, and Tim and Janet of Indianola; and three brothers, Brian and wife, Rita, of Omaha, and Mark and wife, Barb, and David and special friend, Tony, of LaVista.

He was preceded in death by his father, George E. Cornwell Sr., his mother, Pat, and one brother, John.