Teacher supported wide range of education

There was almost nothing George Lange could not build or fix.

He was a real all-purpose guy. He'd fix the plumbing and wiring at home, even though he was never really trained for that. He really did it all by instinct, said his daughter, Deborah Lange of Point Breeze.

George L. Lange of Murrysville, retired director of the Forbes Road Career and Technology Center in Monroeville, died on Saturday, July 19, 2014. He was 84.

Mr. Lange, a native of Natrona Heights, worked for many years as a graphic arts instructor in public schools in Canoga Park, Calif. He taught a curriculum that included printing and developing photographs in darkrooms, his daughter said.

In the late 1960s, Mr. Lange and his family returned to the Pittsburgh area, where he taught printing at the Forbes center, which offers training in areas such as advertising design, automotive technology and culinary arts.

He eventually became the center's director and retired in 1987. In 1982, Mr. Lange was president of the Greater Monroeville Area Chamber of Commerce.

Vo-tech education used to be sort of degraded as something the students did when they were not college-bound. He really did not agree with that view at all, said his daughter, a civil engineer and executive director of the Brownfields Center at Carnegie Mellon University.

Mr. Lange encouraged his four children and grandchildren to get an education.

Education was not only his profession. He encouraged us to get as many degrees as we could. His children and all of his grandchildren who are old enough have a degree, his daughter said.

Mr. Lange graduated from California State Teachers College, now California University of Pennsylvania, in 1956. He earned a master's degree in education from the University of Pittsburgh and served in the Navy Reserve.

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Teacher supported wide range of education