George was born in McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania and grew up in Warren, Ohio. After high school, he entered Parks College of Engineering of Saint Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri and graduated with an aeronautical engineering degree. He accepted a job with an aerospace firm in Denver, Colorado. After 4 years, he entered graduate school at Colorado State University earning master’s and doctorate degrees in civil engineering. Most of his professional career has been as a consulting engineer except for eight years during which he was a member of the civil engineering faculty at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico. As a water resources engineer he has worked extensively on water projects in the Middle East.