George was a proud native Oregonian, born in McMinnville to Otto and Velle Heider. He spent his youth in Nyssa, graduating as the valedictorian of the 1969 Nyssa senior class. George went on to earn an engineering degree from Oregon State University and a MSEE from University of California at Santa Barbara. He served in the ROTC and the U.S. Air Force; upon completion of his service, he joined IBM. After a short stay at IBM, George joined Intel Corporation and remained there until his retirement in 1997. In retirement, George traveled extensively, golfed, enjoyed RC helicopters and classic cars. An engineer through and through, George loved tinkering, from the time he was a child when he took apart every toy his mom gave him to understand how it worked. He was always able to put them back together. He and his older brother, Otto Jr., are famous in Nyssa for causing a UFO sighting with one of their experiments. George is survived by his wife, Donna Brune of Camas, Wash.; son, Andrew Heider and wife, Diane; granddaughter, Hailey of Albany; and siblings, Toqua Brasel, Neal Linegar, Otto Heider Jr., Les Linegar and Marty st. Clair. A celebration of George’s life will be held on Saturday, June 23 at 4 p.m. at his Camas home. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to DoveLewis Emergency Animal Hospital.