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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:
Mr. Stephen Schmidt

Born in rural South Dakota in 1908, the second of four siblings. Died of Lou Gehrig's disease in 1986 in Ojai, California. He and his younger brother Orvin, who also became a Captain for United Air Lines, developed an interest in flying after visits and crashes by barnstorming pilots in the early 20's. He leaned to fly with the Army Air Corps in at Love Field in Texas, graduating in 1931. He was hired by United in 1933 and retired in 1968. Among his many exploits, including years of flying military transports in Asia during WWII, was safely landing a Boeing 247, its landing gear frozen, with 11 souls on board at Oakland in 1940, earning banner headlines in the Oakland Tribune. During his career with United he also flew DC3, DC4, DC6, DC7 and DC8 aircraft as well as the Convair 240. He married Lucille Zihman, a United stewardess, in 1940. who died in 1988. He has two sons: Jeffrey of Kelso, Washington and Stephen, of Menlo Park, California.