After graduating from high school in 1919, he worked as a machinist's apprentice for 3 1/2 years at Harlan Ship Building Corporation in Wilminton. His aptitude for mathematics earned him a job filling in for algebra teacher assigned to instruct the shipyard apprentices each Saturday. Working with peers all week - only to be put in a position of authority over them on the weekend - proved to be quite a challenge. "All of a sudden, you had to behave. It was a good experience, but it was tough."

After his apprenticeship, Worrall landed a job as a tool maker in Camden. It was there, at age 22, that he met Marie Lieveknecht through the people with whom he boarded. She was 14 months older than he. They have been married for 72 years. The pair's 71st annivesary was announced on newscaster Paul Harvey's radio show.

Diploma in hand, Worrall and his wife moved across the country to Pasadena in 1929, where he enrolled in the doctoral program at the California Institute of Technology. His pursuit of higher education was cut short by the depression - Worrall left the halls of academia to find work. "I would have been a lousy Ph.D anyway," he said.

His technical background put him in good stead, and Worrall secured a job as chief engineer at Mitchell Camera Corporation. in Beverly Hills. He worked there from 1934 to 1943 - during which time his childeren were born.

Realizing he could accomplish more on his own, Worrall quit his job and started Worrall Camera Company. It was and exciting time for the motion picture industry: The era of silent movies was ending.

"This was the start of sound," said Worrall, who made parts for sound equipment for companies such as RCA.

Worrall eventually grew tired of repairing and duplicating geared camera heads that had been poorly designed, so, in 1952, he put his own pieces together and created the Worrall geared head that earned him fame. "It's putting mechanical parts that are available to new use," he said. "I did what I thought the cameramen needed for ease of operation."

"I made a couple for Warner Brothers. and then I never had to advertise from then on," he said.

He built more than 600 of the machines, described as the "first stable, smooth and balanced triple-mode geared head." "It took very little force to move it." Worrall said. Epics such as "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Dr. Zhivago" were filmed using the Worrall geared head.

In 1992, George Worrall, was honored by the Acadamy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences for his contributions to the technical side of filmaking, with an Acadamy Award. (Photo of Award) The Worrall geared head - which is still used today by some movie companies - recently prompted the Society of Operating Cameramen to honor George Worrall again.  See the award he received.

In 1967, George Worrall Sr. "retired." After years of commuting from Southern California to his shop in Anderson, he moved to Shasta county in 1980.

"I never really figured that I'd retire. It's nonsense to sit around and die. I'm interested today in what's going on tomorrow. He still goes to work everyday.

George Worrall had chat with Albert Einstein

George Worrall won't tell you that he actually met Albert Einstein, but he can't deny that he and the famous physicist once had a conversation, albeit a brief one.

Worrall attended graduate school in the early 1930s at the California Institue of Technology in Pasadena when Einstein conducted seminars as a short-term visiting professor.

"I was just and average graduate student," he said. "I spoke to him once, but that was very casual."

The entire Physics Department of the college had gathered for a group photograph one day. Worrall had driven his car there, and one of the professors enlisted his help.

"He said, 'Go up and see if you can find Einstein,' " said Worrall, expaining that the Nobel Prize winer stayed about three blocks from campus. "He said, "If you see him, bring him back. Get him down here in time for the picture."

Worrall, then in his late 20's, hopped in his car and met Einstein and his companion walking on the road about a block away.

He offered the scientist, then in his early 50s, a ride.

"He said, 'It's too close. We'll walk down.' " Worrall said. "So I turned around and went back.

"Yes, I spoke to him, but that doesn't mean anything," he said.

The resulting photograph shows Worrall in a crowd that includes Einstein and Julius Oppenheimer, the American nuclear physicist considered the "father of the atomic bomb."

Worrall said he never attended any of Oppenheimer's lectures.

"Those were purely theoretical seminars," he said. "I was too practical for that."