George Mellott

George Mellott was a man of wide-ranging abilities: teacher, fighter pilot, professional musician, and family man. As a Huerfano County resident for 28 years, he passed away on April 10, 2025, at the age of 92. He had resided his last year within the loving family of friends and workers at the Spanish Peaks Veterans Community Living Center in Walsenburg, CO.

He leaves his wife of 65 years, Elecive “Ellie” Blair Mellott; daughter, Catherine; son, Steve; daughter-in-law, Judy Mellott (Wilkins); and three grandchildren, Eric, Meghan, and Ryan, all of Colorado.

George was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and grew up in the Shenandoah Valley and the Washington, D.C. area. He and his wife lived in Texas (Air Force), Iowa (graduate school), Williamsburg, KY (music professor at Cumberland University) and 30 years in Edwardsville, IL, where he was a professor of music at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, where they were living near St. Louis, MO. He spent 20 years as a pilot in the U.S. Air Force and the Air National Guard while at the same time teaching and performing as a musician. With degrees from Eastern Illinois University and a Ph.D from the University of Iowa, his musical specialty was in the woodwind instruments. He played with the St. Louis Philharmonic Orchestra, the St. Louis Symphony, as first clarinet with the Ballet Orchestra of St. Louis, and backup for a range of musicians as diverse as Rod Stewart, Tony Bennett, and Luciano Pavarotti. He also played clarinet in the Pueblo Symphony. As a pilot, he flew the following jets: T-33, F-84, F-86, F-102, F-109, and the F-4 Phantom.

Memberships included the Masons, TKE, and the Ascension Episcopal Church, Pueblo, CO. He was awarded the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. George and Ellie’s favorite activities were bird watching, downhill and cross-country skiing, canoeing rivers, traveling, hunting, camping, and for George, being known as a groan-worthy punster. Family, friends, and students will all miss George. He was a kind, true gentleman.

A memorial service will be held at the Ascension Episcopal Church in Pueblo on Saturday, April 26, 2025, at 10:30 a.m. Donations in George’s honor may be given to any of the following: Spanish Peaks Veterans Community Living Center, 23500 US-160, Walsenburg, CO 81089, the Salvation Army, 401 S Prairie Ave, Pueblo, CO 81005, Shriners Children’s Hospital, Attn: Office of Development, 2900 N. Rocky Point Dr., Tampa, FL 33607, the ASPCA Tributes, 520 8th Ave., 7th Floor, New York, NY 10018, Wounded Warrior Project, P.O. Box 758516, Topeka, Kansas 66675-8516, Ascension Episcopal Church, 420 W. 18th St, Pueblo, CO 81003, or the Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration, PO Box 1000, Vail, CO 81658.

Condolences may be made at www.MontgomerySteward.com