Model Avaiation Hall of Fame

Ad hoc Selection Committee members (L-R) Bill Netzeband, Jerry Neuberger, Norm Rosenstock, Charles Mackey, with friends Dale Kirn and Rich Hanson. Jerry Neuberger Hall of Famers at 2002 District X breakfast. Back row (L-R): Dale Kirn, Bill Netzeband, Anita Storey, Robert Boucher, Jim Alaback, Roland Boucher, Bill Northrop, LeRoy Weber, Bob Hunt, Dick McCoy, Joe Bridi. Front row: Dick McCoy, Norm Rosenstock, Joe Beshar, Sal Taibi, Bob Palmer. Jim Alaback (L) was one of the 2002 Hall of Fame inductees who received a plaque from AMA president Dave Brown at the 2002 District X breakfast meeting. Jn the 34 years I've been flying model airplanes, it has been my great privilege to meet and become friends with some of the best people in the world, but once in awhile it gets me into trouble. Cliff Weirick had an aversion to computers and wouldn't even take the one I offered to give him, no strings attached. Because of this, we ended up collaborating on a number of review projects for Radio Control Modeler magazine: he'd do the hard work, and I'd do the writing. The last project we worked on together was to revamp the Model Aviation Hall of Fame selection procedures in an attempt to reduce the paperwork that the Selection Committee had to wade through. Each year when the nominations for the Hall of Fame came out. Cliff would call to let me know he wouldn't be flying for the next couple of weeks because he had a mountain of paperwork to go through to complete the selection process in a reasonable time. There was just too much involved in getting someone selected to be in the Hall of Fame. When Cliff passed away I was left with a document that was approximately one-quarter of the way completed, and I had no idea what to do with it. So I jumped at the chance when Rich Hanson, the vice president of my district, called and asked if I could come to a meeting at the 2001 AMA Convention in Pasadena. California, with him. Dave Brown. Jerry Neuberger is all smiles about the fine work his ad hoc Hall of Fame Selection Committee has done. LeRoy Weber was another 2002 inductee. New parameters for selection ensure that deserving modelers are considered. Electric-modeling pioneer Roland Boucher receives his Hall of Fame plaque. His contributions are numerous and significant. Anita Storey, and the remaining members of the group that had been working with Cliff on revamping the procedures. Now I had a plan; I could turn over what I had to them, let them know what Cliff and I had been discussing, and they could take it from there. This is where the getting-tnyself-into-trouble part comes in. Somehow—and I'm still not sure how —I got elected to head an official AMA ad hoc committee to revise the procedures and ensure that the Model Aviation Hall of Fame would continue to be supported and that deserving individuals would be inducted. In 1968 Richard Carson and the Barons Model Club noticed that technological innovations in model building and flying were being made on almost a daily basis, and that with all the new advances, there was little or no recognition of how we had gotten there or the people who had brought us to where we were. The Barons got together and devised a plan to select those modelers who had made great contributions to the art and science of model aviation and to honor them at the Nationals (Nats). To do this equitably, they assembled a prestigious committee to select the first recipients. The Hall of Fame was officially created in 1969. and the first members were given awards May 31.1969, at the end of the Washington-state Nats. The ceremony was sponsored by the Washington State Academy of Aerospace Science in affiliation with the Academy of Model Aeronautics. On the first Selection Committee, representing the State of Washington were Daniel J. Evans—the governor of Washington — and Robert F. Goldworthy. Representing the military were Major General Howard S. McGee, Brigadier General Lyle E. Buchanan, Brigadier General Robert F. King, and Colonel Lyle W. Scott. (This was during the time of the military-sponsored Nats.) Representing AMA were Ralph Brooke, Richard Carson, Roy Duncan, Phil Kraft, John Patton (then president of AMA), Walt Schreder, and Bill Winter. The Selection Committee did a first-rate job of deciding who should be awarded this special recognition. The first Hall of Fame inductees were: • Walter Billet: Walt was virtually responsible for the financial health of AMA after World War II. He spearheaded the Flying 8 Ball club, which garnered support for continued growth of the hobby following the lean years during the war, and the "Flying 8 Ball" soon became an icon for support of model aviation and boasted membership from industry leaders, astronauts, and military leaders. • Willis Brown: Willis was a noted designer of full-scale airplanes (including the Southern Aircraft Aerocar and the Brown Young BY-1) and a winner of the Frank G. Brewer trophy for service to aviation education. Willis was untiring in providing opportunities for involving young children in model aviation. • Carl Goldberg: Carl was the National Champion in Free Flight with his Zipper and founder of the model-airplane company that still bears his name. • Walter Goad: Walter was an early Radio Control (RC) pioneer who, along with his brother Bill, developed much of the theory that was used to design early radio control for models. • Charles H. Grant: Charles was an early pioneer in full-scale and model aerodynamics and design. He was the first man to fly in the state of Vermont (in 1908). Much of what we know about model aerodynamics is because of Charles' efforts and experimentation while he was the editor of Model Airplane News from 1932 to 1943. • NE. "Jim " Walker: Jim was thought by many to be the inventor of Control Line (CL) flying (although anyone who knows Charles Mackey knows that Oba St. Clair really invented CL) and the designer of the first Almost Ready-to-Fly model: the Walker Fireball tbrCL. • Frank Zaic: Frank was a prolific model designer. National Champion, and writer. His first yearbook is a compilation of articles from 1927 to 1934. Richard Carson had been chairman of the Selection Committee and instrumental in the development of the Hall of Fame. Along with the Barons Model Club, he continued to conduct the Hall of Fame and run the Selection Committee until the military withdrew support for the Nats in 1970. Without the military's support, the Barons club was unable to sustain the Hall of Fame and turned over responsibility to AMA. Although AMA had the responsibility for conducting the Hall of Fame, the decision process was never an official function of AMA. The Selection Committee was handled by the Council of Past Presidents and sustained throughout the years strictly by the willpower of volunteer chairmen. The first AMA chairman was Walt Good, who took AMA oversight of the Hall of Fame from the Barons and presided from 1970 until 1979. After Walt stepped down, John Patton took chairmanship of the Hall of Fame Selection Committee and presided until he stepped down in 1999. Keith Storey picked up the ball and was chairman for a brief time until his death in 2000. Keith presided over the final selection conducted by the Council of Past Presidents Selection Committee. Then Cliff Weirick was pressed into service, and he was the last Council of Past Presidents Hall of Fame chairman until his death in 2001. Cliff was confirmed as chairman, but his stroke and resultant incapacitation prior to the selection cycle prevented him from conducting the selection process, so the ad hoc committee handled selection for the 2001 Hall of Fame. Now the Model Aviation Hall of Fame is in its third —and hopefully last-reorganization, and the first chairman under the new procedures is respected modeler and AMA Historian Norm Rosenstock. Concerned about the diminishing number of past presidents available to serve and the long-term health of the Hall of Fame selection process, Dave Brown asked Keith Storey to come up with a plan to revise the committee membership so that there would always be a large enough pool of Selection Committee members to ensure a valid vote on all candidates. Keith developed a plan to include one person from each AMA district on the Selection Committee, to have a sufficient pool of "selectors" available to sustain the process. No one was willing to step forward and accept the chairmanship after Cliff died, so Dave Brown commissioned the ad hoc committee to develop procedures for conduct of the Model Aviation Hall of Fame to ensure that it would continue and not be tied to the health of any one person. Until the ad hoc committee completed and received approval on the procedures document, there were no written rules or procedures for conduct of the Hall of Fame or the selection process. Each chairman conducted the selection process differently, and there was no "standard." The goals of the ad hoc committee were to: 1) Define a procedure for running the selection process that would be fair, quick to work through, and require a minimum amount of paperwork on the part of the Selection Committee. 2) Formalize the membership of the Selection Committee to establish well-defined responsibilities for the committee members, and AM A, to make sure that the Hall of Fame will always be supported by AMA and that there will always be modelers in charge and willing to help. 3) Reduce and standardize the paperwork necessary to conduct Hall of Fame business. The huge amounts of paperwork previously required were the main reason why it was getting hard to get anyone to accept responsibility for the Hall of Fame. 4) We wanted to formalize a structure that maintained the prestige of the Hall of Fame and the honor implicit in AMA acceptance of the Hall of Fame, while ensuring enough autonomy that district politics could never influence the selection process. It took considerably longer to develop these procedures than even the most pessimistic among us suspected; nearly a year passed and eight draft versions were written before we were convinced that we had addressed all the concerns of all interested parties and developed a structure that would ensure a fair selection process without unduly burdening the Selection Committee. Once we felt that everything was organized, we submitted the draft document to the Council of Past Presidents, the Selection Committee district representatives, Dave Brown, and Anita Storey for a sanity check. We wanted to make sure that everyone involved had a chance to make comments about the document that would guide the Hall of Fame for the future. All comments received about the draft document were adjudicated and incorporated into the final version. It was submitted to the Council of Past Presidents and the Selection Committee, and they voted on acceptance of the procedures. How does the Hall of Fame selection process work? It is run by the Hall of Fame Committee chairman and the Selection Committee, which consists of all the AMA past presidents and the current AMA president, who is a nonvoting member. There is also one member appointed from each district by the district vice president. The chairman is chosen by the Selection Committee members and must be reaffirmed each year as part of the process. Each year in April AMA consolidates all the applications it has received in the past year and sends them to the Selection Committee. It picks from the list of candidates those individuals who have contributed the most to model aviation, then each committee member notifies the chairman of his or her individual vote. The chairman consolidates the committee's selection and notifies AMA of the names of those who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame. To ensure total autonomy of the selection process, AMA has no part in the determination of who is inducted. To guarantee that being inducted into the Model Aviation Hall of Fame remains a prestigious event, the AMA president is charged with presenting the award to all inductees, or, at the inductee's request, it may be presented by the district vice president or someone else the inductee chooses. Now that you know all about the Model Aviation Hall of Fame and how it works, you can nominate anyone you feel has made a deserving contribution. The forms are available on the AMA Web site (www.modelaircraft.org) under "Membership Services" in the "AMA Documents (PDF)" section as downloadable and printable document 152. Let's see that those who are deserving of recognition get it. Special thanks to Dave Brown and Rich Hanson for providing AMA support during the development of these procedures, and to Anita Storey for keeping us true to Keith's wishes and for being a joy to have among us. I also want to recognize the ad hoc committee that developed these procedures. Through the sacrifice, dedication, and hard work of Jack Albrecht. Bob Aberle, Charles Mackey, Bill Netzeband, and Norm Rosenstock, the future of the Model Aviation Hall of Fame is ensured. These men are tireless and have only the welfare of modelers and the AMA in mind. If you ever run into one of them, please take the time to thank them for the hard work they've done on your behalf. Scriptci manent—What is written, endures. AM Jerry Neuberger 107 SilvercreekDr. Santee CA 92071-6908