Boulder Rotary Club: Who is this Jeppesen, anyway?
BOULDER ROTARY CLUB
5350 Manhattan Circle, Suite 201 Boulder, Colorado, 80303-4272
303-554-7074 Rotary@wxwax.com
Fax 303-499-6714 www.BoulderRotary.org
NEWS FROM BOULDER ROTARY CLUB
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Sue Deans, 303-579-9580
August 27, 2008
Who’s this guy Jeppesen, anyway?
BOULDER – You’ve probably seen his name on the large sign in front of the terminal when approaching Denver International Airport. And you’ve probably wondered where the name came from.
Authors Terry Barnhart of Modesto, Calif., and Flint Whitlock of Denver answered that question for the Boulder Rotary Club on Aug. 22 by sharing the story of the remarkable life of Elrey Jeppesen, better known as Capt. Jepp. Whitlock and Barnhart collaborated to write Jeppesen’s biography, “Capt. Jepp and the Little Black Book,” published in 2007.
Barnhart, a licensed pilot, was so intrigued by stories he had heard about Capt. Jepp that over several years he interviewed many of Jeppesen’s friends, family members and business associates to gather material for the book. In 2005 Barnhart asked Whitlock, a Pulitzer Prize-nominated author, to help complete the book by 2007, in time for the 100th anniversary of Capt. Jepp’s birth.
Jepp began flying as a teenager in Oregon in the 1920s. In those early years he flew war-surplus planes as an instructor, stunt pilot and barnstormer. He then became an aerial photography pilot in Mexico, an air-mail pilot, and eventually a pilot for United Air Lines in the 1930s. Whitlock shared stories of Capt. Jepp’s adventures wing walking, being shot at over the jungle and in a frightening crash.
Airline pilots know the name Jeppesen from the system of aerial navigation he devised. For years he wrote detailed notes, drew charts and made maps of every airfield where he flew. He felt the charts and manuals available did not have the detailed information he needed for safe operation of his aircraft, so he bought a little black spiral notebook and filled it with his notes. As he described it, “I invented something to prevent me from getting killed.”
Jepp found that many other pilots wanted his notes and were willing to pay for them. At first he ran the sideline business from his basement but eventually the demand for his “little black book” became so great that he gave up flying to run the aerial navigation business.
Over the years the company he founded became a multimillion-dollar international enterprise, and today Jeppesen navigation products are used by virtually every pilot and every airline in the world. In 1990, Elrey Jeppesen was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame and, in 1995, the main terminal of the Denver International Airport was named in his honor.
-Reported by Nancy Geyer, Boulder Rotary Club
For more information on Rotary, see www.boulderrotary.org or www.rotary.org.
5350 Manhattan Circle, Suite 201 Boulder, Colorado, 80303-4272
303-554-7074 Rotary@wxwax.com
Fax 303-499-6714 www.BoulderRotary.org
NEWS FROM BOULDER ROTARY CLUB
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Sue Deans, 303-579-9580
August 27, 2008
Who’s this guy Jeppesen, anyway?
BOULDER – You’ve probably seen his name on the large sign in front of the terminal when approaching Denver International Airport. And you’ve probably wondered where the name came from.
Authors Terry Barnhart of Modesto, Calif., and Flint Whitlock of Denver answered that question for the Boulder Rotary Club on Aug. 22 by sharing the story of the remarkable life of Elrey Jeppesen, better known as Capt. Jepp. Whitlock and Barnhart collaborated to write Jeppesen’s biography, “Capt. Jepp and the Little Black Book,” published in 2007.
Barnhart, a licensed pilot, was so intrigued by stories he had heard about Capt. Jepp that over several years he interviewed many of Jeppesen’s friends, family members and business associates to gather material for the book. In 2005 Barnhart asked Whitlock, a Pulitzer Prize-nominated author, to help complete the book by 2007, in time for the 100th anniversary of Capt. Jepp’s birth.
Jepp began flying as a teenager in Oregon in the 1920s. In those early years he flew war-surplus planes as an instructor, stunt pilot and barnstormer. He then became an aerial photography pilot in Mexico, an air-mail pilot, and eventually a pilot for United Air Lines in the 1930s. Whitlock shared stories of Capt. Jepp’s adventures wing walking, being shot at over the jungle and in a frightening crash.
Airline pilots know the name Jeppesen from the system of aerial navigation he devised. For years he wrote detailed notes, drew charts and made maps of every airfield where he flew. He felt the charts and manuals available did not have the detailed information he needed for safe operation of his aircraft, so he bought a little black spiral notebook and filled it with his notes. As he described it, “I invented something to prevent me from getting killed.”
Jepp found that many other pilots wanted his notes and were willing to pay for them. At first he ran the sideline business from his basement but eventually the demand for his “little black book” became so great that he gave up flying to run the aerial navigation business.
Over the years the company he founded became a multimillion-dollar international enterprise, and today Jeppesen navigation products are used by virtually every pilot and every airline in the world. In 1990, Elrey Jeppesen was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame and, in 1995, the main terminal of the Denver International Airport was named in his honor.
-Reported by Nancy Geyer, Boulder Rotary Club
For more information on Rotary, see www.boulderrotary.org or www.rotary.org.
Views: 6
Milestones
Milestones are back up! You can submit and view engagements, wedding, anniversaries and birth announcements at Prairie Mountain Media's Milestones form. Obituaries can also be found at DailyCamera.com at dailycamera.com/obituaries.
Vist our other sites:
Badge
© 2024 Created by Matt Flood.
Powered by
Badges | Report an Issue | Privacy Policy | Terms of Service
