Tuesday, the city of Kent lost a much beloved icon with the passing of Georgie Condos. For those of you not from the area or who have never met him, Georgie was a paraplegic man who did more work in the community in a day than most people will do in a week. Either wheeling himself around in a wagon as a child, or zooming down the city streets in his motorized wheel chair, Georgie has always believed in pulling his own weight. That work ethic combined with his upbeat attitude has made him one of the most popular men in the city.
I was fortunate enough to have gotten to know Georgie through a project for the Kent Stater. I remember waking up at 4am to go out and photograph his daily routine, starting with his paper route. I jogged behind his motorized chair for hours as he delivered papers, ran errands, and cleaned the streets. Along the way, people would go out of their way to stop and talk to him. I can safely say that, in the weeks of working on the project, I never saw a single person who wasn’t happy to see him.
“I’ve grown up in Kent, I’ll die in Kent,” Georgie said. True to his word, since 1948 Georgie has lived the entirety of life in Kent, and we were all the better for it.

Georgie sweeps the sidewalk in front of the Zephyr and the Loft downtown. Some of his other jobs he has done around Kent include delivering ice for Diggers and lawn mowing.“I know guys with legs that don’t do as much work as him,” says Mary Kay Sitko.

he Star of the West milling company welcomes Georgie in. Here, he enjoys a laugh with Dennis Trautmarl. This is the kind of warmth that seems to follow Georgie wherever he goes in this community.

Ever the vigilant delivery man, Georgie always makes sure that his clients get their paper at their doors. He even goes to the homes of people who are no longer on his route since his injury, and moves their papers from their driveways and curbs, where the new delivery person leaves them, and puts them at their front door. “He’s the best paper delivery man I’ve ever met,” says Mary Kay Sitko. “I’d like to have him back.”

While Georgie’s paper route takes him over three miles around Kent, he wants more. He used to have a much larger route, but after he was hit with a car last year and injured his neck, his employers reduced the size of his route. Now, a year later and recovered from his accident, he wants his old route back.