When George Cowan arrived on the Hill in December, 1945,"there wasn't much time for community work; that came later when we weren't on a crash basis all the time," said George.

Helen "Satch" Dunham, a chemist that George had worked with in Chicago, was already working in Los Alamos when he arrived. George and Satch were married in Santa Fe on September 7, 1946.

George served on the board of Los Alamos Medical Center in the 1950s. He was chairman of Los Alamos National Bank for 30 years. He joined the board of the Santa Fe Opera and became the first treasurer of the Santa Fe Opera Foundation.

While serving on the Utilities Advisory Board, George "campaigned for having the County own the utilities," and became the first chairman of the Utilities Board. A Los Alamos National Laboratory Senior Fellow, he served on the White House Science Council during Ronald Reagan's presidency. George founded the Santa Fe Institute and served as the Institute's first president.

Additional biographical material can be found in the Los Alamos Monitor of September 14, 2003.

Written by Karen Nilsson Brandt, copyright