2023 Colonel Michael Martin Miller began his aviation career in 1955 while attending US Air Force basic training Geneva, New York. After completing flight training on several aircraft, Col. Miller returned to Columbia and the SC Air National Guard (SCANG). Deploying...

2023 Ira Ellis “Bud” Coward, II, started his aviation career early at the age of 17; he was active in the South Carolina Wing of the Civil Air Patrol through high school and was appointed the Cadet Commander of the Aiken Composite Squadron. Coward obtained a...

2019 Walter Ingram "Walt" Johnson Born in Fayetteville, N.C. on August 28, 1945, Walter Ingram “Walt” Johnson began his aviation career at age 15 when he took a part-time job as a line boy at the Sumter, S.C., airport. He soloed his first plane, a Piper J-3 Cub, at...

2015 Jesse Reid Garrison was born in 1936 in Madison, SC, graduating from Calhoun Falls High School in 1955 and Clemson University in 1960. While at Clemson, he worked as a “line boy” for Carolina Aero Service in Anderson, learning to fly while earning $1 per hour. He...

2012 General Shuler’s love of flying began during the years of WWII, when he was able to understand and follow the war effort, particularly the air war. It was the genesis of his desire to become a pilot. He grew up in Orangeburg and in Caracas, Venezuela where his...

2005 John Henry “Luke” Williamson was born on April 18, 1906 and raised in Ninety Six. In 1927, he entered the US Army as an Air Cadet, finished in 1928, and became an instructor of cadets at Brooks Field, TX (later Brooks AFB). The 14th Air Force Historical Office...

1994 Joseph Wilder graduated from the University of Georgia in 1947. He served in the South Carolina House of Representatives from 1987 to present, where he is chairman of several committees. Wilder was a member of the South Carolina Aeronautics Commission from...

2007 Representative Robert "Bob" Walker learned to fly while an ROTC Cadet at the University of South Carolina, under the watchful eyes of SCAA Hall of Famers Frances Miller and Sylvia Roth. In 1966, Walker was commissioned as an officer and pilot in the U.S. Air...

1995 By the time he finished high school, John Talbert had become interested in both aviation and engineering. He was graduated from Military College of South Carolina (now the Citadel) in 1943 with a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering and was commissioned in the...

2009 Robert L. Sumwalt, a South Carolina native, began a career of aviation advocacy when he was a freshman at the University of South Carolina organizing and managing the first USC Flying Club. Sumwalt later served as the first Chairman of the Richland County Airport...

1999 Thomas S. Summers was born on October 27, 1903. Although he did not pursue a career in aviation, he contributed immeasurably to general aviation, especially pleasure and weekend flying throughout South Carolina. In 1938, he founded the South Carolina Aviation...

2006 Born in 1946, Jimmie Doyle Stewart grew up in Greenwood, where he began washing airplanes at the local airport at the age of 12. He had obtained his private pilot and commercial ratings by the time he was 18 , and he used his new ratings to fly various corporate...

1992 A native South Carolinian born in Lancaster, Elliott White Springs was educated at Culver Military Academy and the Princeton University. After graduation in 1917, he enlisted in the U.S. Army Signal Corps aviation section. By age 22, he was squadron commander...

2008 Robert L. “Bob” Sleigher has spent more than 25 years in aviation, serving in a variety of roles including flight instructor, director of flight departments, check pilot, charter pilot, freight pilot and chief corporate pilot. Regardless of the role, he...

2000 John Shelton lived, ate and breathed aviation. He read every thing he could get his hands on about aviation. He built model airplanes and rockets to power them. He hung out at the local airport doing chores for rides and dreaming about the day he would fly. After...

2002 “…with charisma, humor, energy and an unfailing passion for aviation, he has become one of aviation’s great good will ambassadors throughout the world.” “He has spent more years in aviation than most people live.” Edward T.H. “Captain Ed” earned his instrument...

2003 For Bob Russell, flying has been many things: a dream, a pass time, a service to his country, a performance and a true love. Russell was bitten by the flying bug when he was eight years old. As a teenager in Columbia, he flew gasoline models, dreaming of the day...

1993 Sylvia Roth began flying in 1944, earning her private pilot’s license in 1950. She earned a commercial and flight instructor’s rating and started teaching flight training in 1951, giving countless hours of lessons to hundreds of students. As a designated FAA...

2010 In 1923 at the age of 23, Paul Rinaldo Redfern established Columbia’s first commercial airport and aviation business. In 1927, Redfern became the first person to fly solo across the Caribbean Sea between North and South America. Unfortunately he has never been...

2000 Robert (Bob) Pulliam has successfully transferred his passion for aviation into public service, including leadership roles in the aviation industry. As past chairman of the Columbia Metropolitan Airport Commission, his leadership provided support for extensive...

1991 A self taught pilot, Povey’s official introduction came in 1922 in the Army Air Service, where he was one of the first enlisted pilots. After a Miami air show in 1934, he was invited to inspect Cuba’s air facilities and pilots, and later he became head of the...

1997 Carolyn Pilaar is an outstanding aviator and, over the years, she has achieved goals that others only dream about. Pilaar became interested in aviation while attending Western Michigan University. She received her private pilot’s license in the college flying...

2001 Lee Orr entered the aviation field in 1950, and she obtained her private pilot certificate in 1965. Over the years, she has taught nearly 1,000 people how to fly, and hundreds of those people are in the Spartanburg area. In 1971, Orr joined the Arkansas Chapter...

1998 General Newton was born in Ridgeland, South Carolina, where he graduated from Jasper High School. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in aviation education and commissioned a Second Lieutenant from Tennessee State University, Nashville, Tennessee in 1966. In...

1997 Xen K. Motsinger was born in Lafayette, Ga., and he grew up in Taylorsville NC. Motsinger received his undergraduate degree from Maryville, TN and his graduate degree from Tulane University in New Orleans, LA. He moved to Columbia in 1957 to begin working for the...

1993 As a child, Buck Moss made his own model airplanes, and by 1932, he had soloed in an OX-Waco 9. In 1934, he earned his aircraft mechanic certificate. An original barnstormer, he offered rides for small fees, participated in air racing, banner towing and stunt...

1991 A lifelong contributor to aviation, Miller started working for Owens Field in 1948, where she earned her pilot’s license in 1949. She obtained her Commercial and Flight Instructors’ ratings in 1950. In 1951, she became a flight instructor for Hawthorne Aviation,...

2002 “…a quiet-spoken man, often seen in short pants flying his Aztec around the state working on navigational aids.” “…a confident man with a positive outlook, a dreamer, who dreamed about building things.” George Miler, former president of Greenville Avionics and...

1992 A South Carolina native, Ronald McNair graduated from Carver High School in Lake City and was a magna cum laude graduate of North Carolina A&T State. He earned a Doctorate of Philosophy in Physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he performed...

1992 Barnie McEntire’s love of aviation began as a teenager when he washed Piper Cubs at Columbia’s Owens Field. After graduating from the University of South Carolina, he entered pilot training in 1939, earned his pilot’s wings in 1940 in the Army Air Corps and began...

1991 Dexter Martin began flying as a” Barn Stormer” and obtained his pilot’s license in 1919, which was signed by Orville Wright. He toured the Southeast in the famed Mabel Cody’s Flying Circus. In 1935, the South Carolina Legislature created the state Aeronautics...

1995 Billy Lynam’s involvement in aviation spans more than five decades. He soloed in 1932 and in the late 1930’s, he opened a flying school at Sumter Airport. During World War II, he served in the U.S. Army Air Corps as a commissioned officer and instructor pilot....

2006 Senator Phil Leventis has been associated with all “things in aviation” in South Carolina and around the world from the time he was born on November 3, 1945 at the Columbia Army Air Base Hospital, which is now the Columbia Metropolitan Airport. Leventis was...

2003 A Bamberg native, Carroll Joye entered the U.S. Air Force in 1957 and retired 22 years later as a Senior Master Sergeant. His foreign tours of duty included Germany, North Africa, Italy, Greenland, Southeast Asia-Vietnam, Thailand and Spain. Tours of duty in the...

1998 A native of Orangeburg, Howell C. “Nick” Jones served the military in the World War II Training Command as an Army Air Corps Aviation Cadet at Auburn University and in the navy as an Aviation Cadet. In 1964, Jones began construction of a Cassutt race plane, which...

2005 General Johnson was born in 1936, in Aiken, S.C. He graduated from high school in 1953 and then attended Clemson College. He was the outstanding graduate in thermodynamics and aerodynamics from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1959, received a master's degree in...

2005 In 1936, Benjamin Franklin Johnson purchased a disabled plane, restored it and then learned to fly. Southern Airways and Southern Airways School employed Johnson from 1942 to 1944. He also taught in the Clemson and University of Georgia CPT Programs. Johnson...

2000 Rear Admiral (Ret.) James H. Flatley, III is the chief executive officer of the South Carolina Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum in Charleston. His leadership and contributions to aviation in South Carolina include the rebuilding of Patriots Point to...

1996 Dusty Huggins is one of America's most colorful and successful fliers engaged in agricultural spraying and dusting. He started flying in the late 1920s. He started Huggins Airpark in Timmonsville in 1937, and in 1938, he became a charter member of the South...

1991 Bevo Howard founded Hawthorne School of Aviation in 1941 in Orangeburg, and he trained more than 6,000 pilots there. A World War II pilot, he was most famous for his aerobatic titles, including three aerobatic world championships and three international...

2003 Performance Is Better Than Promise! That’s the creed by which South Carolina’s own Sen. Ernest F. “Fritz” Hollings has modeled his entire life of public service. Hollings has always been a champion for both South Carolina and his nation. A native of Charleston,...

1999 Dick Hitt, a pilot, mechanic and owner of PA-20 is best known to thousands of South Carolina pilots as the “FAA’s Mr. Safety”. Dick has been the Safety Program Manager for the Federal Aviation Administration’s Columbia Flight Standards District Office (FSDO-13)...

1991 A native of Laurens County, Henderson became the first black from South Carolina to obtain a Commercial Pilot’s License, Aviation Ground Instructor rating, Flight Instructor rating and instrument rating. Instrumental in breaking the race barrier in aviation, he...

1995 In 1939, Caroline Etheredge Hembel was one of three women accepted for the Civilian Pilot Training Program at the University of South Carolina. The only woman to complete the Program, she was the first woman in the 11 Southeastern states to solo and receive a...

1994 Inspired by Lindberg’s flight across the Atlantic, Lester Hembel began his aviation career in 1929. He established Hembel Brothers Flying Service and “barnstormed” his way through the early thirties. In 1940, he came to South Carolina and completed the Civilian...

1995 As a small boy growing up in Camden and Greenwood, Bill Hawkins developed a deep love for airplanes and learned to identify the type of plane by the sound of its engine. In 1946, he joined the Army and was sent to Japan, returning home in December 1947. In 1952,...

2010 Representative Robert “Bobby” Harrell, originally elected to the legislature in 1992, has a long track record as a representative for the people. Harrell was elected Speaker of the House in 2005 and at the time of his induction he had served six consecutive years...

1993 Jim Hamilton’s military career includes service as an artillery officer, aviator and paratrooper in the U.S. Army. He was appointed to three four-year terms on the South Carolina Aeronautics Commission and was elected chairman twice. Hamilton served two terms as...

1992 A graduate of the Citadel, John Hamilton served as a lieutenant with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division in Columbia. Governor John C. West named him director of the state Aeronautics Commission in 1971, a position he held for nineteen years. As director,...

1994 A native South Carolinian, Cecil Hadwin graduated from Bamberg High School. He learned to fly in 1939 and finished No. 6 in competitive ground school. He was awarded one of ten flight scholarships. In 1942, he was hired as a flight instructor by Hawthorne School...

1991 Joe Giltner developed Chester’s Bermuda High Soaring School into the most important Glider Operation in the Southeast. A World War II fighter pilot and a POW, he was an instructor and Glider Examiner designee. He helped thousands of pilots earn glider ratings and...

2007 In 1939, as a 10-year-old boy, Wendall Gibson took his first airplane ride in a Piper J-2 cub on a grass strip known as Anderson Field with pilot Bob Houseworth after a South Carolina Breakfast club meeting in Walterboro. After World War II, Gibson worked...

2001 Rocky Gannon is an international aviation consultant specializing in airports and air traffic control. In 1993, he retired as the executive director of the Florence Regional Airport. Prior to that position, Gannon was an independent aviation consultant in...

2001 Furtick earned his private pilot’s license in 1938 and was assigned the very low number of 40027 by the US Civil Aeronautics Administration. The South Carolina Aeronautics Commission also assigned him the low number of 314; presumably, he was the 314th certified...

2006 William G. Farrow was born on September 24, 1918 in Darlington. Those who knew him recall a young man who lived an exemplary life, a leader in youth activities at First Baptist Church, an Eagle Scout at 16, an excellent student and a 1935 graduate of St. John’s...

1999 Colonel Faison learned to fly in the early 1930’s with the legendary Oscar Meyer in Hendersonville, NC. He made his first solo flight on July 3, 1936 in a J-2 Cub. While a cadet at the Citadel, he continued his flight training with Bevo Howard. He graduated from...

1994 Charles Duke, Jr. attended High School in Lancaster and graduated from Admiral Farragut Academy in St. Petersburg, Florida. He then went on to graduate from the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD along with earning a master’s in Aeronautics and Astronautics from...

1996 Nettie Durant Dickerson was born in Jasper County in 1923. She was graduated from St. John’s in Darlington in 1940, the South Carolina State School of Nursing in 1944, and the USC College of Nursing in 1964. She served in the Army Nurse Corps on a hospital ship...

1996 A native of Norfolk, Va., Darden graduated from Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia in 1953, a master’s in physics from the University of Virginia in 1954 and a PhD in nuclear physics from M.I.T. in...

1992 Originally from New York State, Maynard Cusworth’s Air Force career spanned three decades. In 1966, he was stationed at Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter, and, in 1972, he retired as a Lt. Colonel. For 19 years, Cusworth taught flight instruction to hundreds of...

1991 John Cureton began his flying career as a flight instructor for the U.S. Air Force at Southeast Training Command in Bennettsville. He was a World War II Army Corps Veteran and served as pilot. Cureton worked as a flight instructor as Stallings Air Force Base in...

1997 Frank L. Culbertson, Jr. was born in Charleston and lived for years in Holly Hill. He graduated from Holly Hill School in 1967 and earned a degree in aerospace engineering from the US Naval Academy in 1971. Culbertson served aboard the USS Fox, a rocket escort...

1998 A native of Columbia and a graduate of the Citadel class of 1940, Horace Ellis “ Sally” Crouch began his career as a Flying Cadet from the first U.S. Army Air Force Navigator School, Barksdale Air Base. As a navigator and a bombardier early in his career, Crouch...

2006 Ray Butters’ experience in aviation, which began when he was a 12-year-old in Detroit, spans 75 years. Butters retired from the U.S. Air Force after 20 years, holding all ranks from “Buck” private in the Army Air Corps to U.S. Air Force Major. He served as a...

1993 In 1959, Robert Bryant was a founding member of The Rock Hill Airport Commission, and he worked tirelessly to establish the airport that now bears his name. He served on that commission until his death in 1977. Bryant was awarded two international aviation...

2008 Major General Jones E. Bolt was born in Ware Shoals in 1921. He graduated from high school at Williamston and earned an engineering degree from Clemson University in 1942. He also earned a reserve commission as second lieutenant in the U.S. Army. In August 1942,...

1996 Born in Columbia, Charles Bolden Jr. earned a bachelor’s degree from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1968 and a master’s degree in systems management from the University of Southern California in 1977. After graduation from the Naval Academy, he accepted a commission...

2002 “…technician, teacher, mentor, and man who would give you the shirt off his back!” Frank Bedard began his career in 1949, working at the Cleveland, Ohio Airport. He soon joined the U.S. Air Force as a mechanic, where he was recognized for his contribution to...

2007 Randolph Battle’s lifelong affection for airplanes began early, when he was just a teen. He was recruited for pilot training at the end of World War II by the Army Air Corps, but his actual duty was as an aircraft mechanic in the Philippines. As part of a...

2004 John F. “Jack” Barry, a native of Spartanburg, learned to fly in 1940 in the Civilian Pilot Training Program at Palmetto Air School in Spartanburg. At the time, he was a student at Wofford College and worked part time as a flight instructor. During World War II,...

1994 Born in High Point, NC, Samuel Austin was educated at North Carolina State and Georgia Tech. He served in Vietnam as an Army Officer and worked in industry and local government. Austin holds a commercial pilot’s license with multi-engine, helicopter and...

2008 Major Rudolf Anderson, Jr. was born in Spartanburg in 1927. His family relocated to Greenville, and in 1944, he graduated from Greenville High school. After earning a degree in textile engineering from Clemson Agricultural College in 1948, Anderson worked briefly...

2004   “Since Gerald became Breakfast Club President, more than 23 years ago, he has done a tremendous amount for the good of aviation. He has brought hundreds of people, from all walks of life, together every two weeks for one common passion—aviation.” Bill...