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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:
Michael Replogle

Fred Wellington Replogle was born in Elkhart County, Indiana, on January 30, 1930, to Louise Berkeley and Gerald Replogle. He was one of seven siblings who survived childhood. After graduating from the University of Indiana, he married Wilma Fuhrman, who bore him two sons, Michael A. Replogle and Stephen P. Replogle, and a daughter, Cynthia Replogle. After two years of service in the Army, he had a successful career as a C.P.A., and financial executive in Chicago, New York City, Pittsburgh, Erie, and Philadelphia. From 1972-93 he was owner and principal of an accounting practice in Hatfield, PA. With a strong tenor voice, Fred frequently performed as a soloist in churches and sang with Choral Arts Philadelphia, Mary Green Singers of Philadelphia, and other groups. He and Wilma retired in 1994 to Yuma, Arizona, where his son Steven lived with his wife and two children, Benjamin Replogle and Joy Replogle. Fred died October 21, 1996, at age 66, and was buried in the Veteran’s cemetery in Fortuna Foothills, Arizona. As of mid-2024, Fred is survived by his widow, children, seven grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren, and by his youngest sister, Jeanean Replogle.

Fred Replogle learned to fly in 1960, ultimately acquiring instrument and multi-engine ratings and logging over 1000 flights. He operated many different aircraft, starting with a Piper Cub, Cessna 150 and 172, and Mooney Mark 21. Fred flew as much as possible for business and pleasure, including annual trips to the family farm that included his airsick daughter, a toy Pomeranian and sometimes a box turtle. On one long trip from Pennsylvania through the Bahamas to Puerto Rico and back, US Customs seemingly suspected this middle-aged man, his wife and 10-year-old daughter of smuggling, and emptied his small plane entirely to sort through their dirty laundry. For many years he owned a Navion Rangemaster with wingtip tanks, which he flew with his son Michael and his family across the U.S. multiple times. Later, in his 1948 Piper Aerostar, N140HR, he flew from Philadelphia to northern Alaska and back, accompanied by his son Michael and his eldest brother, Myrle Replogle, who was also an aviator and aircraft builder of note, most known as the designer and builder of the Gold Bug, N68642, an ultralight aircraft that performed at air shows. In 1988 at the EAA’s Oskosh Air Show, Fred flew on a British Airways Concorde. In 1990, Fred was cited by the World Air Sports Federation (FAI) for a speed record over a recognized course of 431 km/h flying his Aerostar from Kirksville, MO to Colorado Springs, CO. In the summers of 1992, 1993, and 1994, he flew pastors and bible schoolteachers across the Canadian bush as part of the Lutheran Association of Pastors and Pilots (LAMP), which he also served as Eastern Division Development Director. Fred’s love of flying inspired his son Michael to become a glider pilot and his daughter Cynthia to become an aerospace engineer.