Posted by Cathy Gowdy on Friday, December 22, 2006 at 04:31:00 :
Marin Independent Journal
Saturday, February 27, 1993
Section B, page 2
George S. Wells
Editor and writer
George S. Wells, a former Mill Valley resident, died Feb. 7, 1993, at his home in Grass Valley, Nevada County, of lung cancer. He was 73.
Mr. Wells was a camping writer, editor and publisher. At one time he was a re porter and editor at the San Francisco Examiner.
He was born in Dutchess County, N.Y., and received his degree at the University of Alabama. He worked for United Press in Washington, D.C., until the beginning of World War II.
Mr. Wells was a Quaker and conscientious objector to the war. Through his mother’s friendship with then-first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, he was given a non-combat commission in Claire Chennault’s Flying Tigers in the China theater.
First an air controller, he was quickly moved to the U.S. Army Air Force public affairs office because of his journalism background and fluency in Chinese. He was later transferred to the North African and Italian theaters as a public information officer, and as the war ended he was running an English-language newspaper in Vienna.
He then attended school in Mexico City through the GI Bill of Rights program and began writing articles for magazines such as Family Circle, McCall’s and short stories for the Saturday Evening Post.
In the early 1950s, Mr. Wells toured the United States in a camper, soon becoming a lifelong writer, editor and publisher in the new field of outdoor and camping journalism.
During the late 1950s he joined the Examiner staff.
He was hired by the J. Walter Thompson ad agency as public relations director of its San Francisco office.
He returned to writing in the mid-1960s, specializing in how-to books on camping.
He was also affiliated with the Society of American Travel Writers and became editor of Camping Guide magazine.
Mr. Wells bought the publication and moved it from New York to Mill Valley. Between 1962 and 1972 he lived in Mill Valley and expanded his business into Rajo Publications. It began publishing Flying Models, Trailering Guide, Motor Homes Guide and other publications. He sold Rajo in the late 1970s and retired to Grass Valley.
Mr. Wells is survived by his wife, Anne Wells of Grass Valley; his daughter, Cherie Hearne of Berkeley; a brother, John H. Wells of Miami; a sister, Beatrice Allen of St. Peters, Ill.; and two grandsons.
Private services were held.
Memorial contributions are referred to the Thrift Shop Cancer Aid, 317 South Auburn St., Grass Valley, 95945.
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The California Death Index adds information: George Stevens Wells was born December 29, 1919; his mother’s maiden name was Hunter; his father’s surname was Haviland.
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