Obituary: George Bryan Wyatt, Longtime Woodbridge Resident and Historian, 90

George Bryan Wyatt, a town father in Woodbridge, died on Saturday, January 14, 2012 at Raritan Bay Medical Center in Perth Amboy with his family at his side. He was 90 years old. 

Funeral services will be held on Wednesday, January 18 at 9 am at the of Woodbridge on Rahway Ave. Interment will be in Middletown Town Cemetery, Middletown, RI. 

Visitation will be on Tuesday, January 17, from 2 pm to 4 pm and 7 pm to 9 pm at the at 44 Green Street in Woodbridge.

Born in Newark, Wyatt was a descendant of three signers of the Mayflower Compact and was part of the Coggeshall line, one of six families who founded the city of Newport, RI.  He moved to Woodbridge 79 years ago. Wyatt graduated from Woodbridge High School, in 1940 and attended Newark College of Engineering, now New Jersey Institute of Technology, and Rutgers University. 

He retired in 1993 after 21 years as a senior engineer for Woodbridge Township and had previously been employed with Purolator Products in Rahway where he designed the diesel fuel filter used on Mack Trucks. Wyatt was also employed as a design engineer by Bell Telephone Laboratories in Murray Hill; Kearfott Manufacturing Company in Newark, where he was responsible for the navigation systems used in B-52 bombers; and Newark Brush Company in Kenilworth.

Wyatt enlisted in the United States Army Signal Corps in 1942. He participated in the invasion of Saipan, serving there and in Guam. He later received a field commission as Second Lieutenant. After World War II, he served in the U.S. Army Reserves and was called to active duty during the Korean War, where he was assigned as a liaison to Naval Intelligence at the Pentagon. He served again in the Army Reserves after Korea, retiring at the rank of Major. For his service he was awarded the Eastern Mandates, American Campaign, Asiatic Pacific Campaign, Good Conduct and World War II Victory medals, as well as the NJ Distinguished Service Medal by the NJ Department of Military and Veterans Affairs. 

Wyatt was a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Woodbridge for over 50 years; he also belonged to Mensa, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Society of Civil Engineers, and the Military Officers Association of America. Wyatt was involved with the Historical Society of Woodbridge Township; he was an organizing member of Woodbridge River Watch; he was a member of the NJ Society of Sons of the American Revolution, Abraham Clark Chapter, where he had served as a vice president. Wyatt was a former president of Mawbey Street School PTA; served as engineering advisor to Union County Junior Achievement; and volunteered as an arbitrator in Woodbridge Township citizen dispute resolution cases. 

Wyatt was an avid gardener, fisherman and teller of stories.

Surviving are his wife of 59 years, Barbara Baker Wyatt; a daughter, Margaret Wyatt-Willoughby and her husband, Tom; a son, Robert Bryan Wyatt; two granddaughters, Christine Caldwell and Susan Wyatt, and their mother, Kathleen Wyatt; two grandsons, Lucas and Peter Willoughby; two great-granddaughters, Kaitlyn and Abigail Marie Caldwell; and a sister-in-law, Amy Baker, all of Woodbridge.