September 2007 - George Francis Thornally, Jr., my life partner since 1993, was killed instantly on 9/11/2007 on a moonless night during a power grid black-out when the plane he was piloting crashed into Copper Mountain in Joshua Tree, CA close to the Roy Williams Airport where his plane was based. George was a VFR rated Pilot and is appears that he misjudged his distance from Hwy 62 where the lights from cars would have been visible in determining his landing path.

In his lifetime George did many different things first, showing other's what could be done and why, that have become standard practice in current times.

1. Designed and built the first "San Fernando Style" apartment building, establishing a new business model and architectural style for multi-unit dwellings targeted to young professionals that has been used ever since locally and on a national level.

2. Designed and built the Berkley House Motor Hotel, establishing the first business model for urban location motels. The motel is, logically, now owned by the Ramada Inn.

3. Created an Equipment Leasing Company that was the first to do restaurant equipment leasing. He evangelized to the restaurant industry the financial advantage of leasing equipment rather than purchasing it. That is now standard business practice for all non-chain restaurants.

4. Developed through the Thornally/Bird company a method by which rural, low-income families could finance building and owning their own homes.

5. Created a Masters Degree Program in Creativity that caused a big stir in that academic community and gave rise to all those companies that are currently providing creativity workshops to corporations and organizations.

6. Evangelized and demonstrated locally and nationally what the new communications technologies via the internet would come to mean to the individual citizen and to business and demonstrated proof of concepts. Ultimately, along with his associate Kent Fillmore, demonstrated to the world the concept of "online community" through the creation of AOL's Forums.

7. Evangelized to business on a local and national level, the concept of the new business venue = the internet and the information entrepreneur. This concept included web based business applications, online sales venues, and info/entertainment oriented web sites. He created the first ticket sales site on the internet, for instance.

George has also written 3 books:

"AOL, By George" - a memoir about the early days leading up to and starting AOL

"Georgie-Boy, Help I'm not a Vegetable" - a memoir about his experience when he was 16 and paralyzed to the point of being medically declared to be in a vegetative state.

And the recently completed "Virgin, the Mystery of Amos Virgin" - an historical romance mystery based on family lore. For those that would like to know George better, Amos strongly reflects his inner self.

George was a Lieutenant in the Palm Springs Civil Air Patrol Squadron 11 and was very impressed with the quality of young people who were in the Cadet Program. Recently he was working in his mind on finding a better structure to facilitate raising funding for the Cadet Program.
Sooo... "in lieu of flowers"... $ can be sent to:
Donations should be in check, with the check be made out to: Squadron 11 Civil Air Patrol, and in the memo section state Cadet Program.
Please include a note that it is in memory of George Thornally.

The address is:
Springs Squadron 11 - Civil Air Patrol
P. O. Box 2663
Palm Springs, CA 92263

A Memorial Life Celebration will be held at our house in Yucca Valley starting at 2pm and lasting until sunset @ 5pm on Sunday October 21, 2007.

There will be an exhibit illustrating George's life and accomplishments.

If you wish to attend and are short on time, the more formal aspects of the event will happen between 4pm and sunset.
Because it is an event for George's Community, it includes being a Community Pot Luck = bring finger food.

Contact me (Stephanie Schoelzel) @ 323-807-6471 for address and directions.

I treasured each day that became the next one with him. I was always amazed that such a uniquely special example of the male human species like him would "have me as the primary woman in his life" and that we were together as long as we were.

What an experience!!!! THANK YOU, GOD!