(Con't from immediately preceeding E-transmission) Brian's height also lended to his being selected as the marching band's Drum Major - leading it on local parades along Main Street and/or Grand Avenue. Yes, aviation was both Brian's career and primary interest, but he was also a person of other varied skills, abilities and interests. He was a good friend and will be missed. We may move forward with or lives, but we never forget.
Herb Jewell
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I heard about Brian's untimely passing Thursday evening from Brian's Mom, Martha - from whom he inherited his passion for writing (and reading). He inherited his passion for aviation from his Dad, David, who, after piloting B-17 bombers during WWII, worked for Pioneer Airlines - an early local service carrier -and, subsequently, Continental Airlines. Brian & I were best friends from our elementry school years through our undergraduate college days - and kept in touch regularly over the subsequent 39 years through our many career stops. Our families lived a couple of blocks away from each other in a small town just south of LAX. Jetliners had just started flying regularly out of LAX 3-1/2 years early; so, plenty of propliners (piston & turboprop) still frequented LAX. In that less threatening era, we were able to experience quite a bit of the aviation and railroad industries just by looking respectable and by asking the person in change "Can we please see THAT?" Brian was heavily involved in building aircraft models, writing airline and railroad public relations departments for pictures, postcards and related brochures (the LOT - Poland - IL-18 and Viscount postcards were unique acquisitions during that Cold War era) and beginning his aviation library with the first of the British aviation books arriving in SoCal. The best times, however, were when we were able to coax our parents into letting us take our aviation and rail excursions to various points on the compass away from SoCal or Dallas - where Brian's family later moved. A $.65 full breakfast in snowy Downtown OKC in between a pre-dawn Braniff BAC-111 DAL-OKC flight and a return OKC-FTW journey aboard Santa Fe's "Texas Chief" was one of those memorable travel moments. So, a lifelong friend has departed too soon. I imagine that his upcoming travels will include that Pacific Airlines Martin 404 "all stops" flight from LAX-SFO that always eluded us. Fair winds and following seas!
Herb Jewell.
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