Dale Curtiss Price, Sr. was born in Montpelier, Indiana on January 8, 1921. He graduated from Stamford High School in Stamford, Connecticut in 1940.
He enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in November 1942. He received his basic training at Parris Island, South Carolina and his advanced training at Cherry Point, North Carolina. There he attended Aircraft Engineering School (A.E.S. #41) and taught basic aircraft mechanics to pilots and to the first female Marines who came to the base. He was stationed for a short time at Bogue Field and Oak Grove Field where he participated in air patrols up and down the East Coast searching for enemy submarines. He was transferred to Ewa, Hawaii and then to Midway Island where, as a Staff Sergeant and Engineering Chief in the Third Marine Air Wing, he was in charge of the crews keeping the airplanes flying.
After he was discharged in March 1946, Mr. Price opened his own auto repair shop in Cambridge, Maryland. This led to his career in restoring antique land vehicles as an independent contractor for the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History and several private collectors.
Mr. Price retired in 1982 but has never lost interest in aviation. He is a member of the OX-5 Aviation Pioneers and for the last thirty-two years has been co-director of the Horn Point Antique Aircraft Fly-In sponsored by the Potomac Antique Aero Squadron and the Dorchester Heritage Museum in cooperation with the University of Maryland.