George McGimsey (George McGimsey) : Member Profile : Thoos

I was born in Fort Bragg, California in 1930.

My inadequate education for the first five grades was accomplished in one-room schools in Aderson Valley, California. We moved to Ukiah, California, and I attended Ukiah Elementary School. Miss Ida Baker was my seventh grade teacher who would not allow any pupil to be in her class and not learn something. I flowered under her. By the time I was in Ukiah High School, I was determined to make A's which I did. I attended the University of California at Berkeley and was awarded a Masters Degree in Economics.

I was drafted in the US Army. After two years, I was first in line for a discharge.

I was hired by the Detroit City Plan Commission as an economist.
I oversaw a study in which we projected the decaying tax base for Detroit. This demonstration study of city-wide urban renewal has been replicated in many other cities.

After four years in Detroit, I accepted a position as Research Director for the City of Baltimore. We created a real property inventory for Baltimore. We also projected the need for a third campus for the University of Maryland in Downtown Baltimore.

In 1965 I joined the staff of the Baltimore Regional Planning Council as Assistant Director for Research. My efforts focused on preparations for the first "mail out- mail back" Census of Population in 1970. To make feasible the accumulation of data by census tract and other small areas, we prepared a computerized map for the Baltimore metropolitan Area. Prior to preparing this map, I served on an Advisory Committe for a test run of the new enumeration system in New Haven, Connecticut. In the 70's I staffed the Higher Education on Urban Affairs which encouraged the local Universities and Colleges to undertake studies on problems confronting Baltimore City. Later President Kennedy provided grants for the establishment of Urban Observatories. I staffed the Baltimore Urban Observatory. Later I oversaw the preparation of the first and second transportation
control Plans for the Baltimore Metropolitan Area. I spent my last ten years with the Regional Planning Council overseeing the updating of this plan and other studies of ways to reduce air pollution. We undertook seminal studies of offset trading of pollution credits which clearly showed that the largest offsets were to be found in the transportation sector. Each trading of "the right to pollute" involved a ten percent reduction in the combined air pollutants.

I retired from the Regional Planning Council in 1985. I then was an Associate Real Estate Broker and used my background in Real estate
economics.

Most recently, I helped my daughter, a divorced single mom with six young chidren. I baby sat the children for about ten years.

I have taught business administration at the Baltimore County Community and grant writing at Sojourner-Douglas College.

I am a lay minister with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. My ministry has focused on Boy Scout Programs in the Baltimore Metropolitan Area. In encouraging wilderness experiences for the boys, I came to realize that neither the boys or the adults had any idea of the stimulating outdoor places in the Mid-Atlantic Area area. See my web site (guidetofun.com).

I seek to share fun places in the Mid-Atlantic Region. If my guidetofun.com generates advertising monies, I will expand its coverage to the entire United States.