PHOTO: George Briggs of Augusta, probably in his early teens, stands at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., in 1931. The woman with him is most likely his private nurse. (Photo supplied by Robert C. Briggs)
By Robert C. Briggs
My uncle George was a true patriot. In his short life of 31 years, he endured more hardships and counted more blessings that any man I know. He is recalled as never complaining about his challenges, and he was a friend to everyone he met. The wisdom he passed along is summed up in one of his favorite sayings — “The unforeseen will defeat the best laid plans every time.”
George Briggs was born into a well-to-do Augusta family. His father, my grandfather, Henry Briggs, was one of the pioneers in the automobile industry in the state of Maine. He initiated many of the practices of the industry — buying cars on time, dealership groups and revenue sharing. Despite his financial success, he was painfully aware of the many things money cannot buy.
The second born of seven children living at the Briggs home at 22 Melville St., George’s summers were spent at a cottage on Upper Richardson lake in Andover. Upon returning home, my uncle contracted polio. After swimming in a community pool in Farmington, he began to exhibit flu-like symptoms. A throat swab confirmed the awful suspicion that George had contracted infantile paralysis (poliomyelitis) — one of the most dreaded scourges of that era.
My grandparents were not the type to take adversity lying down, and neither was George. Henry Briggs designed innovative adaptations for his grandson, such as a car for him to drive using hand pedals and a boat outfitted the same. A pin ball machine, large aquarium, gaming tables and eventually a swimming pool could be found in my grandmother’s living room. An upstairs bedroom was converted into a lab, where George built radios and tested inventions.
Although unable to attend public school, George’s goal was to graduate from Cony High School, and that required him to attend class his senior year. With no elevators or electric wheelchairs available, my father, Robert Briggs, carried George from class to class and up and down the long steep stairs at the Flatiron building.
Most winters George spent some time in Georgia at the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation. It was there he made the acquaintance of another polio sufferer — sitting President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. They would swim together in the heated mineral water pool, and George was a guest at the Little Whitehouse — Roosevelt’s Camp David — situated at the facility. Roosevelt twice invited Uncle George to his presidential inauguration — in 1936 and again in 1940. My father recalled sharing Thanksgiving dinner with the president while visiting George.
The bombing of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 6, 1941, would change life dramatically for every American. My father and two uncles were drafted into the armed service. Americans were called upon to make considerable sacrifices, which included the rationing of luxury and essential materials. American citizens who were German, Italian or Japanese were forced into quarantine, mostly for their own protection.
As America geared up to become the arsenal of democracy, my grandfather curtailed his business and loaned money to the Ford factory in Massachusetts that turned out trucks, munitions and planes. Due to his 4-F classification, George was unable to directly participate in the war effort. He served as a postmaster for letters from soldiers in the neighborhood, distributing them to family and friends, but when the federal government enlisted the American public to find a solution to a munitions problem, a disabled man from the small state of Maine may have found the answer that would ultimately change the course of U.S. history.
The problem called for a mechanism that would detonate a bomb above ground, greatly expanding its destructive capacity. George worked almost two years on an invention and sent the final draft to the Department of Defense. They responded on several occasions with letters of acknowledgement and congratulations. The device to detonate a bomb while airborne was used in the atomic blasting of two Japanese cities that brought a defiant foe to its knees and an end to World War II.
While it may or may not have been George’s exact device that was used, to him it did not really matter. Had the bomb not been deployed, Plan B was an allied invasion of mainland Japan. Casualties were estimated to be in the millions, one of them likely his brother, later my father, who was serving in nearby China.
Roosevelt and Uncle George would eventually lose their battles to polio. Roosevelt died from complications of the disease in 1945; my uncle in 1951, but they won their war! Roosevelt used the power of his office to pave the way for Jonas Salk and his discovery of a polio vaccine in 1955. Uncle George was able to overcome the many obstacles created by the disease and, by all accounts, lived a happy and successful life.
Americans of today could learn a lot from my uncle George.
