George Francis Buero

George Francis Buero, 88, of Charleston, SC, passed Sunday, December 15, 2024, in the presence of his loving family.

George was born October 31, 1936, in Charleston, South Carolina, a son of the late Stella Mary Sirisky and George ("Mike") Joseph Buero. He is survived by his children, Michael Buero and Carmen Buero Conley, and his surviving siblings, brother Michael “Mike” Joseph Buero, Jacqueline Buero Lear and Annette Buero Gill, their respective spouses and many close nieces and nephews. George was predeceased by his sisters Marilyn Buero Tezza and Lucy Buero Amundson.

George shared a special bond with his identical twin brother, Mike, and both grew up in downtown Charleston during World War II, a time that shaped his values, resilience and “no complaints” attitude. They liked to say they “fought all the way through the war,” referring to their time as 50-pound Golden Gloves boxers who were brought out to entertain soldiers stationed in the area. When their uncle was furloughed from the Navy Yard after the war, the boys would crew for him while he fished for a living. Cole Island off of Folly Beach was their base and the Stono River the source of the bounty.

Maybe it was because the twins were born on Halloween that they took particular joy in tricking (and sometimes treating) their sisters, local Charleston beauties. Tricks took the form of shortsheeting beds or washing their dirty dog in the family bathtub. His sisters in turn always adored them.

George was an altar boy who attended Catholic schools including Cathedral, St. Joseph’s and Bishop England High School. His least favorite subject was “school”, and he and Mike left to join the Air Force in 1955, where they completed high school equivalency. He served the military for nearly 30 years including with the Tennessee Air Guard and the Charleston Air Force Base as a full-time reservist. He joked that he had no idea what he was getting into in trying to avoid formal education, as he was consistently schooled and tested the rest of his life as a military and commercial aviator, retiring as a commercial Flight Engineer from Tower Airlines in New York, after years with Saudi Arabian Airlines, where he worked with his brother and resided with family in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

George sought adventure and had the instinct to always help the less fortunate, globally and locally. Newly married, he reported back to active duty in Germany during the Berlin Crisis of 1961. In the late 1960's, he worked in West Africa as the Chief Flight Engineer and Director of Maintenance with the Foundation for Airborne Relief (FAR), part of a cross-denominational effort which had secured a small fleet of old cargo planes and a crew of daredevil pilots to deliver food aid to a blockaded Biafra during the Nigeria Civil War. Twenty-five aircrew were lost in the effort, including some of George and Mike's friends and colleagues, but the overall effort – reportedly the largest noncombatant airlift in history - saved hundreds of thousands of lives. Again, in the early 1970s, George worked with FAR to provide food relief to a population facing famine in the wake of the civil war in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). He brought his then – and daring -- wife Brenda and young children with him to Sao Tome, Africa and Dacca, Bangladesh, where they enjoyed unusual and life-changing experiences.

On a local scale, George never missed an opportunity to help family, a friend, a neighbor or a stranger in need. If he had five dollars in his pocket, you would get six of them. He rescued many stranded motorists and fishing boats over the years, too many to count. A woman in Charleston was broken down near an auto parts store with a flat tire. She asked George if he could lend a few bucks toward a repair. George went in, bought a brand new tire, and put it on the car for her with no questions asked. That was a typical George move.

Nearing his airline retirement in the mid to late 1990's, George and family members bought their beloved Cole Island, which they have mildly tamed and mostly preserved, donating historic finds on the island from the War of 1812 and Civil War to local museums in keeping with his love of history. In retirement, George became a beloved social fixture of Sunset Cay Marina, Folly Beach and his neighborhood of nearby Sol Legare for nearly two decades. A lover of animals, he could often be seen on Center Street with his dog Rocco, a two-pound Yorkshire Terrier, poking out from his jacket, or with his adopted goose, Honky, on Cole Island. Not surprising, since his childhood pets included dogs, a deer and a leashed alligator!

Like every human being, he was not perfect. He was single-minded and stubborn; he didn’t say I love you much, but he preferred to show it. He was generous to a fault. He was sometimes the life at the party, but sometimes the last to leave. He mantled and dismantled a thousand old cars, mostly in the front yard. He took major hurricane evacuations as a mild suggestion, assuring his family he would put his bed/couch on cinder blocks and “squeegee out” any debris.

George's children and family will deeply miss his dry wit, which he still amazingly displayed up to the last few days of his life. The man could catch you off guard with mundane observations that were equally astute and hilarious.

One of his last complete sentences uttered in a semi-consciousness state was: "What movie am I watching?" Indeed, his life could have been an Oscar contender, complete with a handsome leading man, bootstrap rise to success, death defying adventure, lots of laughter, meaning, and an ever present and equally amazing sidekick in his brother Mike.

The family will receive friends between 4:00 and 6:00 PM, Monday, December 23, 2024, at the James A. McAlister Funeral Home, 1620 Savannah Highway, Charleston.

(Did we tell you that he really didn't like Christmas? True Story and Last Laugh)

In lieu of flowers, the family kindly requests donations be made to the Veterans of Foreign Wars or directly to VFW Post 445.