Marcellus "Celly" Foose would not have us forget the spirit of the infancy of aviation, the forgings of aviation's pioneers, and our earliest separations from the limitations of man's earth-bound travelings. He would have us remember the peaceful, humbling whispers of those days when flight into the clouds was fresh and new and represented a dawning of a surreal freedom for those with enough adventuresome vision and courage to be known as sky pilots. We count him among those technological renegades whose restlessness, curiosity, and passion define the "post-Kitty Hawk" pioneers.

Marcellus Foose was born only a decade after the first recorded manned airplane flight. He was born into an era marked by sorrow, poverty, and exponential growth of technology. His imagination, artistic and inventive abilities, appetite for machines and tinkering with engines burgeoned into a love affair with flight. His legacy is reflected in myriad ways; from his hand drawn illustrations in the 1930s book "Flight Instructor" authored by Captain Duncan, a World War I Royal Air Force Squadron Commander, to hand-manufactured tools, a Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) approved sliding canopy and three-place conversion for the Fairchild PT-19 and PT-23, and entrepreneurial accomplishments resulting in the development of B & F Aircraft Supply in 1938. His legacy continues in the numerous historical pieces donated to the Octave Chanute Aerospace Museum and donated aircraft on display in various states. Among these are a Curtis 0-52 "Owl," and a Boeing P-12E housed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio.

The very private realm of Foose's flying and rebuilding world encompassed numerous aircraft. Included are the American Eaglet, A-40 Taylorcraft, Porterfield, Waco GXE, 1929 Brunner Winkle Bird, SM8A and Gullwing Stinson, Star Cavalier, Laird, Bellanca, Piper J-3 Cub, Driggs, Curtis Robin, Ercoupe, 1941 Aeronca Chief, North American AT-6, and Curtis 0-52 "Owl." Of special importance to him was his close personal relationship with his mentor and friend, Mr. Cornelius Coffey, one of the earliest African-American aviators and his receipt of the Charles Taylor Master Mechanic Award in 1993.

When we remember the words of the poem "High Flight" by John Gillespie Magee, Jr. when we think on man's ability to "reach out and touch the face of God." It is with solemnity our certain duty to recall those early aviators who dedicated themselves to the possibility of that prayer. Marcellus Foose was one of those aviators, and it is our blessing that for his knowing of the freedom the rest of us might only dream about, his dreams and imaginings became the underpinnings of a technology we do today so readily take for granted. It is our blessing that Foose's legacy indeed remains something more than the mere material artifacts remaining; his contribution to a craft is the true blessing, and that subtle nuance of the craft that we so routinely call "flight" remains the very private realm of all those who understand its original meaning, its freedom, its purpose for the advancement of aviation.