Years after his death, sportswriter continues to inspire and influence

Despite their loss, family and friends are still helping others.
& lt;a href=mailto:wilkinson@vindy.com & gt;By D.A. WILKINSON & lt;/a & gt;
VINDICATOR RELIGION EDITOR
Ian Chamberlain's decision to donate part of a lung to a friend has resulted in a new career.
In 2000, Steven Wellman, 39, of New Waterford, and Patrick J. McGrath, 35, of Monmouth Beach, N.J., each gave a lung lobe to help George C. Welker Jr. of Columbiana, a Vindicator sportswriter. Welker was dying from cystic fibrosis, a birth defect that clogged his lungs with mucus.
But one transplanted lobe failed, so Chamberlain, 47, of Columbiana, donated one of his.
Wellman and Chamberlain attend George's church, Abundant Life Fellowship in New Waterford. McGrath was a friend of George's, as was Rick Armon, 37, of Rochester, N.Y., who was ready to donate if needed.
Welker recovered and returned to work. But he contracted a virus common to transplant recipients and died in 2001. His oldest sister, Sherry, had died of CF in 1978.
After George died, Chamberlain said George's abundant faith brought forth fruit in life and would bring forth more fruit in death.
Chamberlain quoted the words of Jesus in John 12:24.
"Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit."
New career
While waiting for the operation at the University of Southern California, Chamberlain decided to switch careers.
"I told George about my plan to become a nurse," Chamberlain said.
Chamberlain graduated Friday with a nursing degree from Kent State University East Liverpool Campus. He was class president.
Chamberlain said he had always been interested in medicine and made the decision after seeing the care he and George received during the transplant. Chamberlain had worked in the packaging industry.
"I think God has given me quite a bounty of skills and abilities. He gave me a good brain, but I wasn't really using it," Chamberlain said.
He wants to work in critical care or pediatrics, and would like to go on missionary trips to Africa to work with HIV and AIDS patients.
Chamberlain said he has no problems from his organ donation except the "normal aging process." In his case, that meant running in the 10-kilometer Peace Race last fall. After the operation, he used to bicycle from Columbiana to his job in Salem, work, ride to Lisbon and then back home.
"I don't feel short of breath," he said.
Chamberlain said his experience "definitely built my faith."
Blood donor
Wellman still works at NRG Energy in Pittsburgh. He celebrated his 39th birthday Friday.
Wellman says he notices no problems with his breathing 99.9 percent of the time. When riding his dirt bike with friends, he said, "I look at the other guys and see them breathing hard."
After donating a lobe to George, Wellman began donating blood as often as he is allowed.
"I have Type O negative," said Wellman. "That's the universal blood type. You can use it for anyone. It's really in demand."
Wellman recalled that his uncle had received transfusions while battling cancer.
"During the last year of his life, he was living on other people's blood," Wellman said.
Wellman has also thought about becoming a bone marrow donor.
"It feels good to help people," Wellman said.
Gift of life
McGrath said he has no ill effects from the surgery. Since the transplant, he and his wife, Heather, have agreed to donate their organs when they die.
McGrath said that he often thinks about George, and wonders what could have been done differently to change the outcome.
"I wish he was here," he said.
Armon said, "I'm not sure that my coming so close to donating a portion of my lung changed my life, but watching George's struggle at the end and his death certainly did.
"His faith inspired me to return to the Catholic church, which I had wandered from during college. Now I'm back to attending church each Sunday and trying to be a better person. More George-like, I guess. George was a saint and I am so much better off for knowing him and his family," Armon said.
He added, "I'm not sure if I will ever forget his mother's comments at his calling hours. How he told his mom one day that he had visited the afterlife and was at peace, and he came back just to tell her to let him go. She acquiesced and then he passed away."
Increasing faith
George's mom, Betty Welker of Columbiana, said the deaths of George and Sherry had increased her faith as well as the faith of her husband, George, and their other child, Kim Fay Linhart.
Sherry died on Mother's Day, and George died in June, when Father's Day falls. Betty said she didn't know why her family had to go through such suffering.
But wherever George and Sherry were, they told people about how God loved them and gave them strength.
Betty recalled that once she could not be with Sherry while she was treated at a hospital. "Sherry said, 'I'm not going alone. Jesus is right here with me.'"
Betty said that her increased faith came from realizing that God will provide help in time of trouble. She helped start Abundant Life's grief recovery program that plans to begin community outreach in the fall.
The church will soon build a softball field that will be named after George, who loved children. George was active in many sports, but didn't get a lot of playing time because of his illness, his mother said.
"I know one day we'll stand before God," Betty said. "And he'll say, 'Turn around.' And there will be our kids."
& lt;a href=mailto:wilkinson@vindy.com & gt;wilkinson@vindy.com & lt;/a & gt;