Thomas W. Wathen was born October 5, 1929, in Vincennes, Ind., across the Wabash
River from O'Neal airport. The airplane bug bit early. He built model airplanes, became a Civil Air Patrol Cadet, and traded airplane rides for work around the airport. He graduated from Indiana University in 1951 with a degree in Police Administration. He joined the Air Force, was stationed at Wright-Patterson AFB and the Pentagon, and served in the Office of Special Investigation from '52 to '54, then became a program security director at North American Aviation on the B-70 and X-15. After North American he became the west coast
security director of RCA, then the first security director of Mattel. In 1964 Tom began his own private security company with California Plant Protection, which he expanded into a national company with 20,000 employees. In 1987 he acquired the historic Pinkerton agency and expanded his business to eventually employ 50,000 people in 225 offices around the world. He retired from Pinkerton in 1999. Tom didn't fly during his Air Force stint, but he got his private pilot certificate in 1958 in Dayton in an Aeronca. Shortly thereafter he bought an Ercoupe and restored it, which began a series of restoration projects including Piper's first PT-1, the 1934 Grosvenor House DeHaviland Comet, the 1938 Keith Rider R-4 Schoenfeldt Firecracker, the 1946 Volmer Jensen VJ-21 powered glider, and a replica of Roscoe Turner's LT-14 Meteor nearing completion in Colorado Springs. During the restorations, Tom became familiar with FlaBob Airport in Riverside, Calif., and rescued it from the hands of real estate developers in 2000. FlaBob is one of five sites in the U.S. picked by the EAA to host Air Academy day camps. In August 2001, 122 fourth-graders got an introduction to airplane modeling and sheet-metal work, and capped the day with Young Eagle rides. Tom was anxious to show off the recent improvements to the airport, but FlaBob's annual fly-in, scheduled for September 22 and 23, was cancelled due to the ban on VFR flight. Earlier this year Tom went to Sun 'n Fun and heard that the remnants of Stoddard-Hamilton and Arlington Aircraft Developers were still available from the bankruptcy courts, and on April 16 he wrote a check and got into the airplane business. He hired Mikael Via as president of the New Glasair company and recently announced a policy to help Glasair and GlaStar builders who had made deposits to SHAI and AADI. Tom has logged about 3,500 hours in a variety of aircraft, served two years on an Aviation Safety commission in the late “80s, and was appointed to the President’s Council of the EAA in 1987. Tom is also a life member of the National Institute of Intellectual Property Law Institute.