George Ransom Kenreck

George Ransom Kenreck Peacefully passed away on June 8, 2022.
Many decades ago, in the mid-1950’s, there was a single mother with five young boys. One day the home door opened and in walked a man. Five rambunctious young boys ran up to him screaming “Are you going to our new Daddy?” he never had a chance.
George Ransom Kenreck was that man. George was born in West Los Angles, California on May 25, 1928, and lived 94 years. Some may call his young years “The Good Ole Days.” However, years past were not always “Good”.
George’s childhood was pretty much fatherless, as his dad and stepfather died young. Leaving his mother to raise him, his two brothers and three sisters. To make ends meet George sold newspapers, fished off the Santa Monica pier catching and selling fish for a nickel a piece, and since LA was mostly farmland, he gleaned beans the harvesters left behind. When he was a teenager, being tall for his age, his mom lied about his age and got him a job at the bakery where she worked. He worked the early or late shift, all while attending University High School in Santa Monica, California.
He was still in high school when World War II was raging. He joined the Army in 1946 for a brief stint until 1947 where he received his first Honorable Discharge. Then again, he served in the Philippines for about a year and a half before being Honorably Discharged in 1953. While serving his country he was awarded the Korean Service Medal, United Nations Service Medal, and the National Defense Service Medal. He received a “Complete” Honorable Discharge from the military in 1960.
George learned his trade and love for Constructions from his sister’s husband, Roy Atherton. First, he constructed swimming pools, then he became a Journeyman Carpenter which led to him becoming a General Contractor in California.
When George met that single mother with five boys, Zelma Asaro, he had previously been married. However, his prior wife became gravely ill and was incapacitated with Polio and was placed in an Iron Lung. That marriage did not survive. George and Zelma were married on May 23, 1959, in North Hollywood, California. George and Zelma soon added a baby girl to their family.
George then took his wife Zelma and their six children to Tarkington Prairie, Texas in 1960. There, this strong hard-working man held a full time Union Carpentry job in Houston where he even worked on the Astrodome, while in the evenings and weekends he tended to approximately 70 acres of leased farmland, where they had dozens of cows, chickens, and some pigs. George and Zelma planted and harvested hay for the cows, and a garden of corn, peas, squash, and watermelons for their family.
General Contracting took George and Zelma back to Lancaster, California in 1965. Georged worked as hard as ever in his newly formed Constructions business, building projects such as: Jet Engine Testing Facilities, roads, bridges, canal weirs, underground storm channels and his biggest project- The Monolith Portland Cement Plant. He loved hunting and fishing, which he got to do sometimes as he worked all over California. He always loved the mountains, so he purchased land in the Tehachapi mountains. With the help of his five sons, a mountain cabin was built. Nearly every weekend was spent there, until…
In 1978 the ranch and farm life called George and Zelma back to Texas. They purchased 110 acres on the Tarkington Prairie and picked up where they left off in 1965. They lived the rest if their lives there.
There is no telling how those five fatherless boys would have turned out, had George not come through that door into their lives and never left. One of those boys grew up and always said “You want to know what a Dad is? That is what a Dad is!”
George is preceded in death by his wife, Zelma Kenreck; mother, Mae Butcher Dodd; stepfather, C.C. Dodd; father, Daniel Francis Kenreck; sister, Lucile, Claudia, and Beatrice; brothers, Odis, and Dan; stepson, David and his wife Jill; grandsons, Aaron, Stuart, Anthony, and Justin Asaro.
George is survived by his stepsons, Steven Asaro and his wife Colleen, Bruce Asaro and his wife Marcella, Roy Asaro, Stanley Asaro and his wife Karen; daughter, Susan Alexander and her husband Tommy; grandchildren, Brian, Stephanie, Alisa, Robert, Tyson, Ben, Libby, Hennessey, Allison, Barbara, and Cindy. Also, his nephew, nieces, great grandchildren, and numerous friends.
Funeral Services for George Ransom Kenreck will be held at Pace Stancil Funeral Home in Cleveland, Texas on June 18, 2022, beginning at 10:00am. In lieu of flowers the family requests you to make a donation to the charity of your choice.