The Beautiful Tragic Life of George Masa

Resurrecting the memory of a forgotten giant

George Masa setting up for a photograph (cropped). Image freely distributed by Bonesteel Films [1]., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/1933_George_Masa_800px.jpg

Beneath the shaded Oak groves of a small cemetery outside Asheville, North Carolina rests the grave of a man who history nearly forgot. The headstone is simple, no fanciful carvings or effigies signifying the incredible life led by the one interred.

In lot 95, Grave 25 of the Old Y section of Riverside Cemetery, you can find a faded granite stone telling the dates when a man made his worldly entrance and final exit.

With the dates comes a name, and the name is George Masa.

Gravestone of George Masa. Photographer unknown. Image courtesy Find a Grave. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/36606802/george-masa/photo

Masa’s life had no happy ending. No triumphant send off fitting the stature of the unlikely hero considered by many to be the Ansel Adams of the Smokies.

Instead, he would die penniless on a Wednesday, alone in one of those steel frame bunks of Buncombe County sanitarium. The Saturday edition of the Asheville Citizen-Times would print a single column eulogy, eloquent and sympathetic, but at the time falling short of a lasting tribute for such a giant.