The Newsletter of the Pan Am Historical Foundation
Following is the letter sent out by PAHF President C.W. Runnette to all members of the Foundation as part of the Annual Meeting packet. It brings members and friends up to date on the current activities of PAHF.
JOIN THE 80TH ANNIVERSARY PARTY CELEBRATING THE FOUNDING OF PAN AMERICAN WORLD AIRWAYS – MIAMI OCTOBER 26-27, 2007
March 2007
To All Pan Am Historical Foundation Members:
Heading into our 16th year, our finances remain good and membership is essentially stable.
Last year we highlighted the regions. The calendar was the very popular “Flying Boats of the Pacific”, the annual meeting was held for the first time at Dinner Key in Miami, where it all started, and Board meetings were held in San Francisco as well as New York. As many of you know, Dinner Key houses not only the Mayor of Miami, but wonderful Pan Am pictures throughout, and has been restored to reflect many of the original 1930ties design features when it served the flying boats. It’s a fine place for our annual meetings, and I would expect to see us back there soon.
In 2006 we put in place the first annual Dave Abrams-Gene Banning Research Grant to be offered by the Foundation in memory of those two gentlemen, to assist researchers and scholars in accessing our archives at the Richter Library at the University of Miami. Designed in conjunction with Maria Estorino, the acting Head of Special Collections at the Library, the initial $1,500 stipend was awarded to Jenifer Leigh Van Vleck. Jenifer is a graduate student at Yale University working toward her PhD in History. Her dissertation is entitled “No Distant Places: Aviation and American Globalism 1924-1968” and features Pan Am as a central protagonist. Jointly selected by Ms. Estorino and Al Topping, representing your Board, Jenifer was one of 14 highly qualified applicants. The Board is delighted with the result of this initiative to encourage greater use of our archives, and will consider expanding the effort.
Still in Miami, Mary Goshgarian was featured in a big spread in the South Florida Sun Sentinel. The article gave well deserved recognition to her dedication and generosity to Pan Amers everywhere through her AWARE store in Miami. And she spoke for many of us in the USA Today article of Oct. 31, 2006 entitled “Pan Am About to Make Its Final Exit”, when she said “…This company was the best. We were family, still are.”
Some of last year’s highlights -
• The Foundation again participated in the World Wings International Charity Drawing at their annual meeting in Las Vegas netting $6,337 toward the continuing organization and cataloguing of the Pan Am archives at the Richter Library at the University of Miami.
• The Special Collections Division of the Richter Library told us:
Special Collections fields an average of 35 queries per month regarding the Pan Am records, making ours the single most used collection in the Library, representing 36% of all the Division’s research services.
Since acquiring our records, Special Collections has spent nearly $290,000 to preserve, organize and provide access to the collection and $26,000 annually to maintain it, and expects to need to invest a further $480,000 to complete the organization and preservation.
• John Luetich, who pulled together the more than 1,000 pictures of Pan Am airplanes and people on the CD entitled “Pan Am 1927-1991 the Story in Pictures”, has done it again. With pictures and other material provided by the daughter of Captain R.O.D. Sullivan, he has compiled another CD mainly chronicling Sullivan’s career with Pan Am. The CD will be available to members for $10 to benefit the Foundation.
• Our Miami Museum Committee has continued to work with the Historical Association of Southern Florida (which holds significant Pan Am memorabilia), regarding potential sites. The focus is again on Watson Island, where final approval has been received for an Aviation and Maritime Museum. The Historical Association is attempting to raise funds to increase the 5,000 sq. ft. initially allotted by the developer, to ensure space for airlines that have served South Florida.
• With seed money from the Foundation, two independent producers began developing a television documentary about the early years of Pan Am. This is separate and distinct from the disappointing Io Communications effort to produce a documentary for profit on the complete history of the company (“On the Wings of Giants”), in reliance on a theatrical distribution.
The proposed TV documentary would cover events during the first few decades of Pan Am’s history, up to World War II, with a special emphasis on the crossing of the Pacific in 1935.
The initial objective of the two, Steve Lyons of Boston-based Moreno/Lyons Productions and Doug Miller of San Francisco-based Pelican Films, is a “scripting grant” from the National Endowment for the Humanities, which has already expressed informal interest in the project. Lyons’ just-completed project for NOVA, “Percy Julian, Forgotten Genius”, aired February 13, 2007 to critical acclaim.
• The Pacific Aviation Museum opened on December 7 on Ford Island near the Arizona Memorial on Oahu with great fanfare. The Foundation became a sponsor by donating $5,000, which we understand will give us the opportunity to mount an exhibition in the Museum’s second phase – to be devoted to WW II.
• The San Francisco Aeronautical Society continues to plan a re-enactment of the original China Clipper flight to celebrate the flight’s 75th anniversary in 2010.
• A very successful exhibit was held at the Japanese Cultural Center on Honolulu highlighting Pan Am’s first class of Japanese flight attendants.
MOST IMPORTANT for your forward planning: the Foundation will sponsor in Miami October 26-27, 2007, a birthday party to celebrate the 80th Anniversary of the Pan Am’s founding. More information is enclosed and we will hope to see many of you there.
I hope you enjoy the rejuvenated Clipper, and will make an effort to provide Mort Young, the Editor with stories and/or other suggestions for inclusion. It’s for your enjoyment and your input can only make it better.
We are grateful for your continuing commitment to the Foundation and to the preservation of the great name and memory of Pan American World Airways.
Pete Runnette
President