"Dinner with A Slice of History" 
Features Curtiss-Wright Cadettes

Jean-Vi and two Cadettes were the slice of history in the lobby of IWASM, at the Burke Lakefront Airport in downtown Cleveland (a stone's throw from the Rock 'n Roll National Hall of Fame). The event was attended by museum members, their guests, and IWASM board members and staff. The Cadettes' stories about working as aero-engineers in WWII elicited a variety of reactions, from a certain amount of perplexed admiration among those with aviation history background to unabashed grinning enthusiasm among audience members (largely women) who were thrilled to hear what sophisticated feats these 'girl engineers' had been up to.
        Although the two participating Cadettes were both from the first class (1943), they went to different universities. Wanda Nelcamp Hare was at Purdue University with the author's mother and Sister Mary Matthew Baltus went to Cornell. Sister Matthew later created an Earth Science Program at Mercyhurst College (in Erie) and designed their astronomy observatory (now named after her). Here they are pictured answering questions after the slideshow/talk. One, of course, was whether Sister Matthew was the "original flying nun." She said, "Yes. In fact that's one of the stories my niece told when she was trying to get into engineering school."

Cadettes Wanda Nelcamp Hare (Purdue) 
& Sister Mary Matthew Baltus (Cornell)

A rapt audience watches Jean-Vi's slideshow.

Earlier at the Hilton Garden Inn . . .

LInda Wiedrick and her mother, Purdue Cadette Wanda Nelcamp Hare, came before the dinner for a videotaping session in my room at the Inn.

AT RIGHT: Sister Mary Matthew reminisces about the Cadette Training Program at Cornell. In her hands she holds a carved wooden object her father made for her and fellow classmates to help them with descriptive geometry.

Next Day in Madison . . . 

IWASM board member, pilot, and aviation instructor Gretchen Reed invited me to come see the wonderful small plane museum and airport (Pheasant Run) she and her late husband created on land adjacent to their home on Trask Road in Madison. Since he passed, she has negotiated a transfer of the property to Lake Erie College. Students at the college created a calendar for 2013 featuring the amazing planes in this private collection (photos at http://www.lec.edu/aboutus/campustour/pheasantrun). Gretchen won my eternal fealty when, as reviewer for IWASM's newsletter, she sent me an email telling me her first reaction to "Flying Into Yesterday" was that it was "the best book on aviation history I've ever read." We had lunch with her partner Ted and she gave me a complete tour of this aviation history marvel.

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Gretchen Reed by the gazebo behind her house in Madison, OH.

Pheasant Run Airport has three groomed grass runways for lighter aircraft landing and is situated on a quiet country road.