Ralph (“Bud”) Kennedy was born on Valentine’s Day, 1919, in Columbus, Ohio (hometown of Eddie Rickenbacker). His family lived in the area where Columbus built its commercial airport; he grew up surrounded by aviation and airplanes. Ralph’s father (also named Ralph) was a commercial painter who did the finish painting on the original airport terminal prior to its opening in 1927. When the elder Ralph learned that Charles Lindbergh would stop in Columbus to see the new airport on a journey east, he ran home to pick up his son, Ralph Junior, and took him to the runway where not only did they see Lindbergh, they met him. A photograph of Ralph Junior and Lindbergh was featured on the front page of the Columbus Dispatch.

Ralph became a lifelong aviation aficionado. He learned to fly and continued flying until the requirement of a pilot’s license grounded him. But his knowledge and enthusiasm helped him talk his way into cockpits whenever he could, on various commercial flights. He turned his interest into an aviation career, first at Curtis Wright, then at North American Aviation, and finally at Rockwell International (all at the same “plant” adjacent to Port Columbus, now known as John Glenn Columbus International Airport). Ralph lived in Columbus his entire life, other than a stint in the Navy during World War II (where they put him to work maintaining airplanes in San Diego).

Throughout his life, he remained fascinated by airplanes, flight, and eventually space travel. He was proud to be part of the team that contributed to the Apollo program for Rockwell, where he worked until he retired. He died in 1978, but would be glad to know that his contributions to aviation are commemorated here.