SURVIVOR OF SIEGE and BLOCKADE OF LENINGRAD, WWII
George Cuker of Boston, formerly of Weston and West Hyannisport died peacefully on May 1, age 83, at the Falls at Cordingly Dam in Newton from complications from dementia in the presence of family.
Survivors include his wife of 56 years Rita (Chentko) Cuker; children Sheryl Appleyard and husband Randy of Rye, NY; Michelle Hughes and husband David of Bethesda, MD; Jennifer Margo Clark of Cos Cob, CT; 11 grandchildren-Connor, Catherine, Caroline and Carter Appleyard; Leah Jade, Sarah Page, Isabella and Wyatt Hughes; and Chelsea, Hunter and Campbell Clark; brother Elliot Cuker and wife Noeline and their children Harrison and Noey of NYC.
George was born in Leningrad, USSR in 1934 the son of Nikolai Efremov of Riga, Latvia and Bertha Dicker of Leningrad, (then Petrograd) and step-son of Harry Cuker of Stolbunov, Ukraine. His father Nikolai disappeared in 1936 during the Stalin purges associated with the Kirov affair.
When Germany invaded Russia in June 1941 and the encirclement and blockade of Leningrad began, his mother Bertha refused to allow George to be evacuated to a safer place with many of the children of Leningrad following the bombing of childrens evacuation trains by the Nazis. She said that they would either survive together or die together. She heroically held a family of four in survival.
In April 1942, following the terrible winter of 1941-1942 when over 1 million people died from starvation during the long famine which began in September 1941, they were evacuated by the Russian military over Lake Ladoga to Drambu, Kazakhstan where they lived there until the end of the war. They lived in an American displaced persons camp in Poking, Bavaria for four years until they were sponsored and able to emigrate in 1949 where they settled in Chelsea, MA.
In 1991 George was proud to receive a medal as a “blockadnic” survivor of the Leningrad Blockade by then Mayor Anatoly Sobchak of St. Petersburg, Russia.
When they arrived in Chelsea, George was 15 and knew no English. He graduated from the Williams Jr High School in Chelsea in 1950 and from Brighton High School in 1953.
He received an AS degree in Mechanical and Machine Design from the Franklin Institute of Technology in 1955 and graduated with a BS in Engineering Management from Boston University College of Engineering. He was a member of the PMD 17 class at Harvard Business School in 1969.
During his time at BU he held a weightlifting record for bench pressing 500lbs. Weightlifting was a passion of his throughout his life, as he was a member of Gold’s Gym and mentored many young weightlifters.
As a Mechanical Engineer and Quality Control Specialist he worked at Raytheon Power Tube Division in Waltham, General Electric Engine Division in Lynn and Northrop Aviation before forming the Kent Group Company specializing in Construction and Project Management.
George always respected the Military as it was the Russian Army that rescued and brought them to safety during WWII as well as the American Army that helped them during their four years in Germany.
After college, he attended the six month Army program at Ft Dix, NJ where he was awarded Outstanding Soldier of the Post which led to a scholarship to the Massachusetts Military Academy of the Massachusetts National Guard where he received his commission in 1959. He was a member of the Yankee Division National Guard before transferring to the US Army Reserve, Artillery Officer. He attended many of Army schools including Command and General Staff College in Ft Leavenworth, Kansas. He was attached to a Civil Affairs Unit and for many years was the Massachusetts liaison officer with West Point, interviewing and recommending prospective students. He retired from the Army Reserve as a Lt Col after serving for over 40 years. He was also a proud member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts for over 56 years and received the venerable status of Senior Life Fifty.
In 1988 during Perestroika and Glasnost, he returned to Russia and formed the joint venture, Moscow Project Management with the Russian Ministry of Construction to educate Russian Managers in Construction Project Management. For many years he brought groups of Russian Construction Managers to Boston for education. In 1990 he formed Russian Real Estate Corp in Moscow to renovate office buildings to western standards. His early clients in Russia were Samsung, Polaroid, L’Oreal. He commuted between Weston and Moscow for over 20 years until 2010 when his health began to fail.
As President of Kent Corp he was proud to design and build the Downtown Harvard Club and also helped locate and move the Children’s Museum from its previous home on the Jamaicaway to its present Seaport location.
George had many memberships and charitable affiliations. In St. Petersburg, Russia, he formed the Leningrad Blockade Survivors Fund to raise money to help elderly survivors find needed services and housing. He was a Trustee of Sarah Caldwell’s Opera Company of Boston and helped find and renovate to what is now the Boston Opera House. He was a member of the Corporation of the Franklin Foundation, appointed by the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Trustee of Hale House, Bethany Union, and was on the Board of the Handel & Hayden Society, Children’s Museum of Boston, Massachusetts Performing Arts Council, the original First Night Boston celebration, Harvard Business School Association of Boston, and he organized and formed the Harvard Business School Association of Moscow. He was proud to be the Project Manager for the reconstruction of the First Church in Boston after its devastating fire in 1970. His memberships include Union Club of Boston, Hyannis Yacht Club, Harvard Club of Boston. He was a proud 33rd degree Mason.
A Memorial Service will be held on Monday, May 7 at 11am at the First and Second Church, 66 Marlborough Street, Back Bay, Boston. In lieu of flowers, please make contributions to the Trustee Fund of First Church.