“There were places and times when I was there when history was being made. There were wars and ships and far-off places and famous people. In the case of the fax machine, I made history myself.”
Retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. George Moreland Stamps died Thursday, April 19, 2018.
He was born in Kuling, China, on June 15, 1924, to Southern Baptist missionary parents Drure Fletcher Stamps and Elizabeth Camilla Belk Stamps. Stamps spent most of his childhood in war-torn China, moving among the church compounds in the Yangtze River Valley and coastal northern China. In Hwanghsien, 4-year old Stamps played between mattresses as a two-day battle raged around the family home. In his teens, Stamps attended the Shanghai American School and lived in Yangchow during the Japanese occupation. In December 1940, Stamps returned to the U.S. and graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School in Richmond, Virginia, before matriculating to Wake Forest University, where he played football and was active in Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity. In October 1942, Stamps volunteered for service in the Army Air Corps and was ordered to active duty in February 1943. Stamps piloted an 8th Air Force Triangle J B-17 bomber in 20 combat missions over Nazi-occupied Europe. Because of near-miss shrapnel hits and his ability to maneuver out of downward spins, aircrew joked that Stamps lived a charmed life.
Stamps married Helen Leone Paty, his wife of 67 years, in 1946. They met in the eighth grade at the Shanghai American School.
After graduating from Wake Forest magna cum laude in 1947, Stamps earned a master’s degree in physics from Columbia University in 1949. The Stamps’ four children, Margaret Evalyn, Robert Fletcher, Thomas Paty and John Belk were born in New York. While pursuing a doctorate and teaching physics and mathematics, Stamps accepted a position at Hogan Laboratories Inc. in New York City and worked there from 1951 to 1959. At Hogan Labs, Stamps led a team of engineers in the development and patenting of what would eventually become the modern fax machine. Stamps worked as chief engineer for Telautograph in Los Angeles, where the first modern telephone fax transmitted outside of a laboratory was initiated from Stamps’ living room. Stamps served as program manager at Magnavox in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, during the development of the 1966 Magnafax Telecopier, the first widely available facsimile machine that transmitted over a regular dial telephone line. In 1973, Stamps left Magnavox and moved to Westport, Connecticut, working as special assistant to the president of Xerox. Stamps marketed the Xerox Telecopier until 1976, when he began a consulting business with U.S., European and Japanese client companies. In 1986, the Stampses moved to Oxford, where Helen's parents, the late Dr. Robert Morris Paty and Katherine Behenna Paty lived for many years.
Civically active throughout his life, in Oxford, Stamps served as president of the Kiwanis Club of Covington, Friends of the Library and Newton County Historical Society; chair of the Newton County Facilities Board and Impact Fee Advisory Committee; and was involved in numerous other organizations.
Stamps is survived by two sons, retired U.S. Air Force Col. Robert Fletcher Stamps and his wife, Quanah, of Arlington, Virginia, and John Belk Stamps and his wife, Kathleen, of Oxford; 11 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
A memorial service will begin at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, April 29, at First Presbyterian Church Covington with the Rev. Dr. William B. Wade Jr. officiating and military honors burial following in Oxford Historical Cemetery.
The family will receive friends beginning at 1 p.m. in the church fellowship hall.
In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to First Presbyterian Church Covington, 1169 Clark St., Covington, GA 30014.
