You never know where the spark for the love of aviation may come from. For me, it was my father, which is not an uncommon story, but my dad was a chef, and he didn’t take me up flying or even show me airplanes to start my journey.
I was born in Toronto, Canada, and when I was four, our family moved to Jamaica. My uncle had asked my dad to be the chef at a hotel he was building. When I was seven, we lost my dad in a boating accident, and my mother, brother, and I moved back to Canada. It was tough for my mom. Dad had no insurance, so she didn’t receive anything from his work at the hotel except airfare and a check for about $2500 as a foundation to start a new life.
She raised two very rambunctious kids and did it by sometimes having three jobs to put clothes on our backs and food on the table while living in our two-bedroom apartment. I’m sure she’s where I get my stubbornness and grit from.
I spent a lot of time in my imagination, and part of that time was looking at things to connect with my dad. He was a Renaissance man; friends and family would say, “There’s nothing he couldn’t do.” He built horse barns, welded, painted, worked in leather, charcoal, and oils, gardened, worked with birds of prey, sold food products, and was a family man. He was a great artist, winning the Canadian Culinary Arts Award twice. Once, he spent weeks in an unheated basement making a Daniel Boone-esque statue out of animal fats and bronze leaf.
Unsurprisingly, he inspired me, but how could he encourage me to pursue aviation even after his passing?
With the moves, we only had a few things tied to my dad. We had some of his art, some pictures, and some of his books. I craved a connection to him in any way I could. I’d stand in front of his charcoal drawings of Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald and study the sweat on Louis’ brow as he wails on his trumpet. I would also look through his books, even the German cookbooks.
But there was one coffee table book, “Aircraft Aircraft,” that captured my imagination. It described the progression of aviation from the first balloon to the present day’s space exploration. I loved reading the book and looking at the pictures repeatedly, even in my teens.
I remember riding my bike 30 miles (48km) to and from home to Lester B. Pearson (YYZ-Toronto) airport at age twelve. Not just once but multiple times. Usually, it was to go to the end of the runways to watch the planes take off and land, feeling the thrill of the roar and size of those huge ships in the air. Other times, I’d ride to the business fixed base operator (FBO), to look at the private aircraft and dream about private jets. Once, I was able to enter the Wardair hangar and explore under their 747. The immensity left me in awe and wanting so much more to be in the presence of these great birds,
My brother worked for Gateway Aviation out of Edmonton in the early 1980s, and once, while in Edmonton, I flew in the cockpit jump seat of a Convair 640 all the way back to Toronto. What an indelible experience for a tween!
As a young adult, I worked for Delta reservations and with American Airlines as an aircraft service technician and de-icer. Is it wrong that I love the smell of avgas in the morning?
My career took a turn into business management, which was mostly outside of aviation but with a little in aviation product approvals, as a business turnaround executive. It seems I had a knack for taking business divisions of global product testing laboratories that were bleeding money and turning them into the company’s “golden child” of profitability.
I met my wife online during this time, way before eHarmony and the like. I have always had side businesses in manufacturing, retail, and services, and this one was building websites back in the days before chat support. I was investigating how to build commercial chat support from the private chat programs that were in their infancy and happened across “The Girl for Me” while not even looking. This January will be twenty-nine years for us.
In 1997 I moved from Ottawa, Ontario, to San Jose, California, to be with my bride. Six years later, we decided to move closer to family and settled in Priest River, Idaho, a city of about 1,800. There are not many executive jobs in a small town, so I took a job at Aerocet, the world’s only certified composite aircraft float manufacturer. I bucked rivets and built landing gear for their amphibious floats. I loved working for the company and worked my way through almost every position to finally becoming CEO for a few years.
I worked for Aerocet for sixteen-plus years. Before I moved on, we went from laying off every fall to steady income and financial stability, including diversification into aerospace contract manufacturing. Aerocet has amazing products and a great team that truly contributes not only to aerospace but also to the community at large.
While at Aerocet, I worked on developing the industry and workforce within Idaho. I co-founded the Idaho Aerospace Alliance and served as past president, vice president, and advisor. The Idaho Manufacturing Alliance now manages the IDAA.
Forming the IDAA helped North Idaho College (NIC), in cooperation with the Idaho Department of Labor, to underwrite enough support for its Aerospace Center of Excellence program to be awarded a TAACCCT grant of $6,438,050. We hired the first four retrained veterans from the program, some of the best team members we could ask for. The program was so successful that the IDoL champion and I were asked to go to the State Capitol to debrief on how we accomplished what we did.
After Aerocet, I decided to start JH Aero on my own. I have stayed in the industry of my heart and enjoy helping aerospace manufacturers and supply chain business owners with strategy, growth, and special projects.
I still love working on ways to introduce kids and young adults to aerospace. That’s why I love Dean Cameron’s “Let’s Go Aerospace” magazine and its accomplishments.
Did you know that 4H also has an aerospace program? Years ago, I found a willing pilot, Amber Philips, who was amazingly open to running the 4H aerospace program. She used her aircraft to give kids a first experience of flight while teaching them the STEM principles of flight and aerospace. How cool is that? We sure do have an amazing aerospace community.
I enjoy exploring/traveling with my wife and deepening my faith in my off time. The higher purpose of the business I steward, is to provide resources for clean water in Africa for the thousands of children who die every day simply from not having it.
Occasionally, I also take time for and enjoy fishing, online gaming, and prospecting.
