George F. Rickel, 91, of Hoyt, KS, passed away on Tuesday, November 29, 2022 at the Anew Nursing Home in Nortonville.
He was born September 15, 1931, at a farmstead west of Hoyt, the son of Dennis and Harriett Woodhead Rickel. Family legend says some confusion occurred because when the doctor arrived, he was drunk and put the wrong date on his birth certificate He graduated from Hoyt High School in 1949. He was drafted into the U.S. Army veteran, and served in an artillery unit near North Korea during the Korean War.
George was a member of the First United Methodist Church in Meriden and United Steelworkers Union Local No. 307.
He had worked 42 ½ years at Goodyear Tire and Rubber in Topeka, retiring in the early 1990’s.
George married Alice Lowry on July 25, 1952 at Auburn. She preceded him in death on October 25, 2007.
George was also preceded in death by his parents, a grandson, Timothy J. Rickel, who died September 19, 1984, a great grandson, Orion Rickel, who died in infancy, a daughter-in-law, Linda Jane Rickel, three brothers, Clifford M. Rickel, Donald S. Rickel and Robert G. Rickel, and four sisters, Zadie B. Howe, Martha Jane Martin, Dorothy Mae Redding and Nancy Trumm.
Survivors include five sons, Cleon Dennis Rickel (Deb), Rogers, Arkansas, Gregory Eugene Rickel (Pam), Carbondale; Eric Wade Rickel (Karen), and Rodney George Rickel (Cindy), all of Mayett;a and Randall J. Rickel, Hoyt; a daughter, Samantha Lynn Chapman, Topeka; two brothers, Charles B. Rickel, Mayetta, and Roland B. Rickel, Burlingame, ten grandchildren, seventeen great grandchildren and a great-great grandchild.
Funeral services will be 10 a.m. Tuesday, December 6, at the Chapel Oaks Funeral Home in Hoyt. Burial with military honors will follow in the Hoyt Cemetery. He will lie in state after 9 a.m. Monday at the funeral home, where visitation will be from 6 to 8 p.m.
