Where we come from

by Dan Baker

If I told you that a person was the first to do cross-country soaring in the U.S. and earned the FAI "Silver C" award in the same year, you'd think that person deserved some kind of recognition, right? If I told you that that same person was National Champion and FAI National record holder for both altitude and distance to a goal in 1946 and 1947, you might even be impressed.

Wait! I'm not done yet. At the outbreack of WWII, this person went to work for Grumman and continued supporting the war effort at Republic Aviation, was founding partner of one of the first commercial glider schools in the US, pioneered the combination of single-place and two-place training, and assisted in forming the National Soaring Museum as well as being inducted into the U.S. Soaring Hall of Fame, you'd ask "Who IS this person?"

If I told you it was Paul Schweizer, you might say "Oh, of course!" but it's not. The person with all these acomplishments (and more) whose aviation career can be traced back to 1941 was Ginny Schweizer whose contributions to aviation were acknowledged recently by the National Aeronautic Association and the Ninety-Nines.

On July 13, in Oklahoma City, at the Ninety-Nines' Annual Awards Banquet, Ginny was presented with the Katharine Wright Memorial Award. This award is presented annually to a woman who has provided encouragement, support and inspiration to her husband and thus was instrumental in his success, or who made a personal contribution to the advancement of the art, sport, and science of aviation and space flight over an extended period of time.

As if her own aviatrix feats weren't enough, Ginny crewed for her husband Paul, helped him in his eight-year effort in writing "Wings Like Eagles" and stood by him and his family as Schweizer Aircraft Corporation became one of the premier family-owned aviation companies in America. The Schweizers still attend soaring contests, meetings and events all over the world.

Oh, and did I mention that in the late 50's, Ginny formed a partnership with Steven Bennis and Bill Terry to operated a flight school (power and glider), which was appointed one of the first Schweizer Glider Dealerships in the US (before she married Paul)? That was at a little place known as Randall Airport in Middletown, NY. Just thought you'd like to know.