By HDN staff
George T. Renaker, 90, died Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2000, at a Havre care center due to an injury suffered in December.
Cremation has taken place.
Memorial services will be held 10 a.m. Saturday at Holland & Bonine Funeral Chapel with Kevin Barsotti officiating. Interment will follow at Highland Cemetery.
Renaker was born June 9, 1909, in Urbana, Ill. He graduated from Urbana High School in 1927, and attended the University of Illinois in 1928 and 1929. He hitchhiked to Havre in 1929, and was employed at the Havre Hotel until 1933.
On Sept. 10, 1932, he married Ann Yates in Havre. The couple moved to Glasgow where he worked in the Glasgow Hotel until 1942. The couple then moved to Fort Peck where he was employed in the soil lab with a crew that ran soil tests on all the major air fields in Montana. They later moved to Minot, N.D., where he worked in the lab testing soil samples on the Garrison Dam for six months. He then transferred to the 7th Service Command in Omaha, Neb., where he was in charge of a crew of men that tested 70 airfields in seven states and Whitehorse, Watson Lake, and Fort Nelson in the Northwest Territory to see if B29's could land on them. The family later returned to Havre where he managed the men's department in Buttrey Department Store from 1948 to 1958. On April 1, 1958, he and his partner Joe Bullinger opened Cavaliers. In 1974, he purchased the store and formed Cavaliers Inc. with his son, Tom, and Douglas Ross. He sold the business to them in 1976 and retired.
He was a member of the first Lions Club in the early 1930's, and a charter member, founder and past president of the present Lions Club. He was a life member of the Elks Club and a member of the Ark Church. He was an avid hunter and fisherman who enjoyed his grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
He was preceded in death by his parents, a sister, his wife in 1997.
Survivors include a daughter, Dianne Abernathy of Cut Bank; a son, Tom Renaker of Havre; seven grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.
Memorials are suggested to KXEI Christian Radio Station or the Ark Church.
Services and arrangements are under the direction of Holland & Bonine Funeral Home.
