George Kohl was born in 1889. He graduated from McGill University in 1920 receiving a B.Eng. After serving with the Royal Engineers in World War I, he joined the Spanish River Pulp and Paper Company in Sault St. Marie, retiring in 1926 to open a consulting practice doing hydraulic surveys in the James Bay area. He subsequently worked for the Power Corporation of Montreal from 1929 to 1933. Unemployed during the Depression years he took a course in general agriculture at Ontario Agricultural College in Guelph, and he acquired and ran a farm until 1948. He then joined the Power Corporation, where he was appointed chief engineer until 1953, retiring to work as a consulting engineer. The same year he was asked to join the discussions regarding the proposed St. Lawrence River Seaway project. He served as alternate member and Chief Engineer on the Joint Board of Engineers of Canada and the United States from 1956 until the termination of the project in 1963. He continued as a consultant to the Canadian government on various St. Lawrence River projects until his death in 1964.