Foil: 14 Panel: Retired United Pilots Association Column: 1 Line: 21

Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:
Ms. Nora Haley

Born the only son of a potato farmer in rural Aroostook County, Maine. He worked the fields, with his father, mother and sisters, to keep the family farm solvent during the Depression. And he dreamed of flying.

At 17, he traded his skis for several boxes of greasy metal parts. Together with his brother-in-law, they assembled the Piper Cub that was in those boxes. And he learned to fly.

From a short first flight to over 37 years of service with United Airlines; from a Piper Cub to a 747; from a small farm in northeastern Maine to all parts of the United States and the South Pacific. At a time when leaving the family farm was unthinkable and a career in air travel was unheard of. In over 32,000 hours of flying, he safely delivered each of his hundreds of thousands of passengers over millions of miles of flight. And he fulfilled his dream.