Past Board Member
Obbie Orville Atkinson, 86, was cleared for take-off from this world on Friday, February 4th, 2011.
View Picture Album from Celebration of Life
View Slide Show from Celebration of Life
(Thanks to Michael Levine for pics!)
As noted in the local newspapers:
San Luis Obispo Tribune 2-3-2011
San Luis Obispo Tribune 2-6-2011
KCOY Fox News 2-5-2011, KCOY Fox News 2-5-2011
KCOY Fox News 2-12-2011
Mt Vernon Register-News 2-8-2011
Obbie was born December, 1924, the youngest of eighth children of Joseph E. and Susie Reese Atkinson in rural Mount Vernon, Illinois. Obbie grew up on the farm with no running water nor electricity, yet took flying lessons, and soloed at age 17. He joined the Illinois Air National Guard at 17 and entered the Army Aviation Cadet program at 18. Upon graduation as a pilot in the Army Air Corps, he became an instructor pilot at Randolph Field, Texas, starting with cadets, and later instructed in B-17's and B-29's to advanced pilots. Later he was on his way to the Pacific in a B-29 when the atomic bomb was dropped, ending WW-II.
Continuing service during the ensuing "Cold War", he served as the "Standardization Board Instuctor Pilot" with the 97th Bomb Group, 20th Air Force, under General LeMay. The 97th patrolled the Russian perimeter with two B-29s at striking distance, 24 hours a day, with an "A" bomb at the ready. One of the operational bases was in Alaska and occasionally Obbie's mission took him directly over the North Pole.
He married his high school sweetheart, Doris Virginia Stitch, also of Mount Vernon, in 1944.
Obbie returned to civilian life in 1949 and with Doris, raised three sons and a daughter. He established a successful career in the automobile business, operated several dealerships over a period of time, including vehicles from Chrysler, General Motors, Ford, and British Motor Company in Mount Vernon. During this period, he also operated a rental and wholesale business until he retired in 1985.
Obbie Atkinson always
continued to fly his personal airplanes coast to coast and to the Bahamas on business and pleasure. He was active in his community serving positions with the Kiwanis, the Mount Vernon Airport Authority Board of Commissioners, and as the areas' first Civil Air Patrol Commander.
In 1986, he and Doris moved to Paso Robles, CA., where is was part of the Methodist Ministries. Soon after arrival, he became an active member of the newly created Estrella Warbird Museum, and until recently served as the Membership Chairman, and as chairman of the "Freedom Flight Veterans Memorial.
Since his first solo in a Piper Cub in 1942, Obbie continued to be active as a pilot for 68 consecutive years. In 1996 at the age of 71, he flew a restored 65hp, 1941 Army L-2 Taylorcraft, coast to coast, delivering it from the Paso Robles museum to the Hendersonville N.C. museum. The trip was successfully completed on the morning of the fifth day with 30 hours and 11 minutes flying time recorded. His previously owned plane was an WW-II Army L-3 Grasshopper formally on exhibit at the Estrella Warbird Museum. By coincidence, Obbie and this particular airplane entered our country's Army the same month in 1943. They never met until 2005. You would see Obbie and the Grasshopper in the air, leading the Estrella Warbird Museum Freedom Flight formation over events honoring our Veterans on Memorial Day and Veterans Day. Together, they took off from this world, never to fly again.
Obbie is survived by his beloved wife, Doris; children
Obbie Ted (Connie) of Richland, Ore; David (Kathleen) of Calgary, Alberta; Joe (Fran) of Phoenix, AZ, and Sue Lyn Goldman (Paul) of Leo, Ind; 15 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
He so enjoyed sharing all thier wide-ranging interests, education and accomplishments. "Human nature will not flourish, any more than a potato, if it be planted and replanted, for too long a series of generations, in the same worn out soil. My children...shall strike their roots into unaccustomed earth (Nathaniel Hawthorne)".
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