Cecil Elliott McGuire

Notes:

This brief biography was excerpted from a longer biography written by Keith David McGuire, Jr. titled "Cecil Elliott McGuire 1896-1983"

Cecil was born in Kansas, moving to with his parents and older brother to the Oklahoma Territory in December 1898. He attended rural schools in Dewey County, Oklahoma, attending through the eighth grade. He moved to New Mexico when he was 18 where he worked as a cowboy on the Drag A Ranch near the town of Datil. He met his future wife, Jean Pearl Phillips, in Magdalena, NM, when he attended her High School graduation ceremony with her brother, a friend of his.

On May 17, 1918, he joined the United States Navy at El Paso, Texas, serving until his discharge at Mare Island, near San Francisco on January 28, 1919. During his enlistment, he went to an Electrical Technician School. He was robbed of his savings on the night of his discharge, while staying at a YMCA. He worked odd jobs in both Westwood, California, and also was sent train fare by his father and brother Elvis to join them at a farm near the border of Alabama and Tennessee to help them manage the farming operations. When he had enough saved, he returned to Datil, and went to work for Nations Land & Cattle Co, and continued with the improvements to the homestead he had acquired to joining the Navy.

He married Jean Phillips on Christmas Day 1920. The couple relocated to Hurley, NW after Cecil was hired by Mr. Hermann, the husband of a close friend, and fellow teacher of Jean's. Cecil started out in the machine shop at the Nevada Copper Co. The McGuire and Hermann families later both relocated to Bisbee, AZ to work for the Copper Queen Mine Company. Cecil later was promoted to the Copper Queen Smelter, a branch of the Phelps Dodge Corporation in Douglas, Arizona.

He also continued his education via correspondence courses, night school, and on the job training, learning the engineering skills necessary to register as a Civil Engineer (Arizona, 1938), and Civil Engineer/Water Rights Surveyor (Nevada, 1958). During his engineering training, in the early to mid-1930's, he worked as a field engineer during the construction of the Hoover Dam. He also worked at the Bureau of Public Roads in Phoenix, supplementing his income by staying rent free in the citrus farm of his supervisor, working evenings and weekends to plow, irrigate, pick fruit, and operate the smudge pots to keep the fruit from freezing.

He also did freelance work in surveying and mapping for ranchers and for the city of Douglas. In the 1940's Cecil and his younger brother Keith McGuire Sr collaborated on designing and building a prototype twin counter rotating rotor helicopter design. Keith worked on the fabrication of some of the components. After Keith's untimely death in 1948, Cecil abandoned the project. Cecil took a train from Arizona to Oklahoma to attend Keith's funeral. He later told Keith Jr that he completed the last leg of his long train trip by riding the Caboose of a freight train from Elk City to Camargo, to arrive sooner than he would have had a waited for the scheduled passenger train run.

Cecil was an avid hunter and fisher. He and his middle daughter, Ida Mae, took an annual fishing trip every summer, the final one taking place in 1983, shortly before his death. They had to cancel the 1982 trip after Cecil was struck by a car riding his bicycle and was briefly hospitalized.

He and his wife Jane were life members of the Hurley New Mexico branch of the Masons and Eastern Stars.




(Research):Cecil enlisted into the armed services on 17 May 1918, at the age of 22. His date of birth was erroneously shown on his military records as 2 July 1894 versus his actual year of birth as 1896. He was released from Military service on 28 Jan 1919.

Cecil married Pearl Jean Phillips on 25 Dec 1920 in Holbrook, Navajo County, Arizona. Pearl was born between 1897 and 1900 in Oklahoma; and died. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]