George Thomas Elmore was born in Newcastle, Pennsylvania, where he worked from a young age for his uncle’s paving business. After high school, Elmore came to Fort Lauderdale to work for his brother’s company, Hardrives. He attended the University of Miami briefly before enlisting in the army during the Korean Conflict.
After the war, Elmore and his wife, Wilma Anne Edward, traded their car for a pickup truck and founded Hardrives of Delray Inc. The company grew to employ three hundred people, who built most of Interstate 95 from Boca Raton to West Palm Beach, as well as many of the major thoroughfares between.
Both George and Wilma contributed their leadership and financial support to a variety of organizations. They established the Hardrives Inc. of Delray Fund in 1985 to promote the free-enterprise system, administered through the Community Foundation of Palm Beach and Martin Counties. The Elmores have been honored by Florida Atlantic University, the Caldwell Theatre, Northwood Institute, and the Sun-Sentinel Co., among others.
George Elmore served as chairman of the board or director locally for United Way, Crisis Line, the Boy Scouts of America, WPBT, the Business Development Board, and the Palm Beach Council for the Arts, renamed the Palm Beach Cultural Council. In 1993 he was appointed by Governor Lawton Chiles to the Community Health Purchasing Alliance. Elmore was instrumental in early efforts that resulted in the Palm Beach Film Festival, the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, and the Palm Beach County Convention Center. He pledged $1 million to the Scripps Research Institute in 2005, earning him a place on the Scripps Council 100. “You need to put back into the community what the community has done for you,” Elmore has said.