He paid for his first flying lessons by doing stunt parachute jumps back in the late ’30s. His first jump ended up a mile from the airport. The 2000’ height where he was supposed to be released looked too low to him so he badgered the pilot into another thousand feet, which put him in an entirely different wind direction. The touchdown point turned out to be near the hotel restaurant terrace where his boss, the local newspaper editor, was eating. When his boss recovered from finding his new reporter entangled (if unhurt) in a parachute harness, he told him, “I can’t have crazy people working for me. It’s either the jumping or the job!”

Jim Greenwood went west on November 5th, 2011. His interest in the First Aero Squadron and its tenure in Columbus is what sparked the organization of our Foundation, and he accepted the chair of the FASF following its formation. Jim was 91. Among his many accomplishments, he made the name “Learjet” a household word. He counted thousands among his friends from movie and sports stars and astronauts to “hangar bums and government clerks.”

Born in 1920, he began flying in 1936, and as noted above, making exhibition parachute jumps at local air shows. He enlisted in the Navy in 1941, immediately after Pearl Harbor, and served aboard the USS Badoeng Strait. As a parachute rigger he helped develop emergency jump equipment. Following his discharge, Jim worked for a commercial parachute service.

His editor later relented on the jumping edict (Jim had never quit) and whatever his job, he never quit writing. In 1948 he wrote the first of his aviation books, Parachuting for Sport, to be followed by two more, The Parachute, From Balloons to Skydiving and Stunt Flying in the Movies.

After a brief stint with Eastern Air Lines, he managed publicity for the 1950 Miami All American Air Maneuvers, sponsored by American Airmotive. From 1951 to 1955, Jim was Assistant to the President of Hawthorne School of Aeronautics, serving as Coordinator of Training. His communications and public relations program developed originally for Hawthorne became models for the Air Training Command. In response to a series of air show crashes where spectators were killed, the CAA threatened to ban all aerial demonstrations. Based on Greenwood’s recommendations, the Administration issued new criteria for air shows – still being used today.

Beech Aircraft

He moved Wichita in 1955 to manage press relations for Olive Ann Beech at Beechcraft. As supervisor of Beech’s external publications, he was awarded the George Washington Honor Medal by the Freedom Foundation. In 1964 he joined the Lear Jet Corporation. He is credited, through his skilled writing, with making the Learjet the most popular business jet of the sixties

In the Nixon Administration, he served as FAA director of public affairs where he wrote the DOT’s first manual for review and release of public information. Close friend Jim Davis recalls how the two of them were called on to deal with the most infamous aerial highjacking of the day involving one DB Cooper, who made his parachute escape from a B727 using chutes “arranged” by Greenwood and Davis. Jim returned to Wichita and Gates Learjet in 1974, serving as corporate vice president until 1985 when he retired as Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs. He later remarked of his years with the mercurial Bill Lear, “…they were enough.”

He organized and managed Arnold Palmer’s record setting flight around the world in 1976 and was instrumental in assisting Neil Armstrong’s flight that set five world records in 1979.

Honors

In 1982 the Federation Aeronautique International awarded him the Paul Tissandier Diploma for a “lifetime of service to the cause of aviation.” Greenwood was elected to the Arizona Aviation Hall of Fame in 1996 and honored by the Kansas DOT and Aviation Museum in 2004 when selected for recognition at the 25th Annual Wright Brothers Celebration. The National Aeronautics Association awarded him their Elder Statesman of Aviation recognition for “increasing public awareness of the social and economic benefits of human flight.”

Among other writings, he published a volume dealing with his and his wife’s experience with her Alzheimer’s Disease, and was still working with Arizona State on an Alzheimer’s project when he died.

In an interview with Jim Davis in 2009, Greenwood admitted to what he called a “brief bridge flying career.” Shortly after being mustered out of the Navy in 1946, he resumed his civilian flying out of Beacon Field, Alexandria, Virginia. One day while flying a Kinner engined Fleet biplane, Jim said, “I had this impulse to do something different…I hadn’t flown under a bridge since St. Louis.” Putting the Fleet into a dive, he took aim at the old 14th Street Bridge over the Potomac River. Swooping under it, he recalled he looked back at the bridge. “I certainly stopped a lot of traffic,” he said.

In what must have been his last public appearance, Jim Greenwood was on hand two years ago to greet artist Peter Westacott when he visited FASF and Columbus to greet the crowd and to chat with old friends and new. We were fortunate to know him; we shall not see his like again.

Election Time for Trustees

As usual, elections of First Aero Squadron Foundation Trustees will take place the end of the year. Please mark you ballot (included with this issue) and send it in ASAP. This is your organization–you run it–please do your part. As you know, the nine Foundation trustees serve two year terms with four running in even years and five in odd years. The trustees in turn elect the officers of the organization from their number at the Annual Meeting. Running for reelection this year are Jim Davis, Ken Emery, Ric Lambart, Martha Skinner and Gene Valdes. A brief bio of each candidate follows:

Jim Davis, Washington DC and Columbus: In a masterpiece of understatement, Jim’s business card reads: Retired Government Clerk. Actually, he worked in almost every area of the FAA, including Tower Controller, and when he retired was the chief of the FAA Rapid Response Team. His responsibilities included responding to every major crisis and then reporting to the President and to the FAA Administrator. He is an active pilot and an aviation historian.

Ken Emery, Columbus: Ken retired from a career as a cultural resource archeologist to a part-time job in a fire watch tower near Globe, Arizona. He presently serves on the Village of Columbus Historic Preservation Commission. His hobbies include deep research on local history and he is an active recruiter for the Foundation. His profiles of the First Aero Squadron appear in the monthly Desert Exposure as well as these pages.

Ric Lambart, Columbus: Ric is a retired Air Force pilot and ADC to Commanding General Continental Division MATS; Senior Partner, Lambart & Clayton. He currently serves as Second Vice President of FASF

Martha Skinner, Columbus: An active real estate broker, she operates Martha’s Place, our local hotel. She is a past Village Trustee and Mayor, and is a member of the New Mexico Border Commission

Gene Valdes, Columbus: Retired Personnel Director, NM Human Services Dept. and a former member of the NM State Personnel Board. Gene has served as President of the Board of Directors of United Way of Santa Fe County; Vice President of Fairview Historical Cemetery, Santa Fe; and is a Navy Veteran whose hobbies include New Mexico history and genealogy. Gene is a board member of the Columbus Historical Society and an officer of the local American Legion Post. He is immediate Past President of FASF.

Ira Adelbert Rader
1887–1958

By FASF Historian, Ken Emery