COAL. - Clpdigital.org

GEORGE B. FINDLEY MEETS UNTIMELY
DEATH IN RAILROAD ACCIDENT WHICH
ALSO COSTS LIFE OF JOHN E. COLLINS A
YOUNG BUSINESS ASSOCIATE.
Mr. G. B. Findley, the well known Pittsburgh
coal opeiator, met sudden death in the Pennsylvania
Railroad wreck at Glen Loch near Philadelphia,
Wednesday night, November 27th. Mr. John
E. Collins, Sales Manager of Mr. Findley's company,
was killed in the same accident. Mr. Findley
and Mr. Collins had been in the East on bustnets
and were returning home to be with theii
families on Thanksgiving Day.
By Mr. Findley's untimely death there is lost
a mcst admirable gentleman from the ranks or
MR. GEORGE HKITTOX FINDLEY.
the Pittsburgh coal producers. He was courtly,
courageous and extremely conscientious in all his
business and social affairs. His business was
prospering and he was just in his piime when this
premature death overtook him. He had an unassuming,
modest manner and a rare character
whose one hatred was unfair business methods.
The just man who met Mr. Findley in a business
way, ever after was his friend. Socially he was
a charming and lovable gentleman.
George Britton Findley was born in Freeport,
Pa., forty-six years ago. His education was
grounded in the public schools of Freeport and subsequently
he graduated from Westminster College,
New Wilmington, Pa. His business career has
THE COAL TRADE BULLETIN. 25
been devoted almost entirely to the coal business.
With Messrs. W. A. Lewis and his son. B. W. Lewis,
he formed the Lewis-Findley Coal Co., operating
a fine tract in the Panhandle of West Virginia
where this company established the town of Colliers.
Recently this concern was reorganized as
the West Virginia-Pittsburgh Coal Co., with Mr.
W. A. Lewis as president, Mr. G. B. Findley as vice
president and general manager, and Mr. B. W.
Lewis as secretary and treasurer. Mr. E. M. Findley,
a brother, is the superintendent in charge of
the operations at Colliers.
Mr. Findley married Miss Belle Taylor of Freeport,
and she and three children survive him.
They are: Jean Findley, 16 years old, Bryson Findley,
14 years old, and Elma Findley, 10 years old.
Mr. Findley was a member of the Duquesne Club,
a thirty-second degree Mason and a Knight Templar.
Only during the past summer he and his
family moved to Pittsburgh from Freeport to take
up their residence in a beautiful new home they
had built at Squirrel Hill and Albemarle Avenues,
Squirrel Hill.
One saddening feature of Mr. Findley's death is
that Mrs. Findley has been in ill health for some
time and is prostrated by the shock. In the past
year, Mr. Findley made three trips abroad, combining
business with the recreation he needed. Hr
was accompanied on the?e trips by Mr. B. W. Lewi?,
who was perhaps his closest business associate and
friend in the past ten or twelve years.
Funeral services were held at the residence Saturday
morning, November 30th, and the remains
thereafter taken to Freeport for interment.
Mr. Collins, who met death at the same time with
Mr. Findley, was one of the rising young coal
men of Pittsburgh. He was only 26 years old and
had already made a splendid record as an aggressive
and successful sales manager. Previous to
his association with Mr. Findley's company, he was
with the Great Lakes Coal Co. Mr. Collins was
unmarried ancl lived with his parents, Mr. and Mrs.
W. W. Collins, 306 North Lang Avenue, in the
Homewood district of Pittsburgh.
The funeral took place from the Collins residence
Saturday afternoon. November 30.
Plans are being made to hold a state-wide first
aid to the injured contest in Lexington, Ky., in
May. 1913, at the annual meeting of the Kentucky
State Mining Institute. It is hoped to interest
every operator in the state and to have 100 or
more teams to compete. The program committee
is composed of H. D. Easton, chairman, State
University, Lexington, Ky.; Hywel Davies, president
of Kentucky Miners' Association, Louisville,
Ky., and W. L. Moss, vice president and general
manager of the Continental Coal Corporation.