Longtime community leader and businessman George W. Hurd Jr. passed away Monday at the age of 78.
Hurd was a funeral director for 57 years in the communities of Geneseo, Moline, Bloomington before purchasing funeral homes in Atkinson, Knoxville and Oneida in 1978, then changing the latter two into Hurd-Hendricks funeral home.
Hurd was raised and educated in East Moline and Silvis and started working at Schroder Mortuary in Silvis during high school.
From there he worked at funeral homes in Moline, Geneseo, Havana, Port Byron, Bloomington and Woodhull and eventually bought Vandermore Funeral Home in Atkinson and the two funeral homes that would become Hurd Hendricks.
In addition to running Hurd-Hendricks for decades, according to his obituary Hurd helped organize the tri-county ambulance service in Henry, Mercer and Knox counties; which involves districts around Woodhull, Rio, New Windsor and Alpha.
He was also a charter member of the Oak Run First Responders and the Carl Sandburg College Mortuary Science Board.
Also at the time of his death he was a sexton of the Knoxville Cemetery andon the Endowment Trust Fund Board for the OES Home in Macon.
Private family services are being held but Friday a visitation will be held at Hurd-Hendricks Funeral Home in Knoxville from 5 to 8 p.m.
He is survived by several children and grandchildren and his wife Marilyn to whom he was married for 58 years.
