OGDEN — Those who knew George Ford say letting up wasn’t in his DNA.

Ford, a lifelong Ogden resident and decorated World War II combat veteran, died July 8. He was 102.

According his obituary, Ford was born in Ogden on Nov. 3, 1917, the son of James Albert Ford and Ida May Burton. He was the fourth of six children and a 1936 graduate of Ogden High School.

He joined the Army Air Force on July 23, 1943. After several training stints around the United States, he eventually found himself stationed in Europe, working as a radio radar technician in a B-17 Bomber. Ford was part of 25 bombing missions over Germany during the war.

In 1945, Ford participated in humanitarian food drops over the Netherlands. At the time, the western portion of the region was still under German control and some 3 million Dutch were at risk of starvation. Ford flew on four food drop runs. In 1985, he was invited by Holland to attend a 40th anniversary celebration for the humanitarian missions. The country awarded Ford with the Medal of Liberation.

Ford was awarded a Medal of Honor from France and Air Medals and Major Battle Stars from the United States.

Ford’s wife, Lorraine, died more than 20 years ago, and since his spouse’s death up until the time he died Ford lived alone in the same east-central Ogden home he built mostly by himself in the early 1950s.

The Standard-Examiner profiled Ford last year, shortly after his 102nd birthday. He told the paper then he attributed his longevity and durability to his active lifestyle. He exercised daily, regularly drove and did all of his own yard work. There may have been some genetics at play as well — Ford’s dad was 92 when he died and he had a brother that lived to be 98.

“He was out working in his yard right up until he died,” said Ford’s longtime friend, Gordon Williams. “He really was quite a fellow.”

In a social media tribute, Ford’s son, Greg Ford, said his father was the “best dad a son could have ever had” and highlighted the man’s work ethic and charity.

“He was still driving and coming out to help me until a couple of days before he got sick,” Greg Ford said. “Helping others was always his greatest legacy.”

Ford is at least the second Northern Utah WWII veteran and centenarian to die this month.

Giacomo “Jim” Favero, who was among the first wave of soldiers who fought in the Allied-led assault landings at Salerno, Italy, during the war, died July 3 at 103.

According to the National World War II Museum and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, only 389,000 of the 16 million Americans who served in World War II are alive today. Utah has just more than 3,000 such veterans.

Terry Schow, an Ogden resident, Vietnam veteran and former director of the Utah Department of Veterans Affairs, said WWII veterans are quickly becoming few and far in between. Schow was close with Favero, but didn’t know Ford personally. Still, he says, losing a member of The Greatest Generation saddens him.

“It’s sad, to be honest,” Schow said. “Some of my dearest friends are World War II veterans and most of them are 95 plus. So they’re not going to be around for long. They offer a perspective that I think few can truly understand today — that whole idea of duty, honor, real sacrifice. A lot of those guys are really humble and reluctant to talk about what they went through, but I always encourage them, ‘Record your history. Your stories are important and they need to live on.'”