Donald A. Baldwin
Donald A. Baldwin
Donald A. Baldwin, born March 11, 1918 in Detroit, Michigan passed away peacefully at Indian River Memorial Hospital of heart failure, November 3, 2006, leaving his loving wife of 32 years, Gladys Vanacek Somerville Baldwin.
After the death of his father in 1923, his family relocated to Ann Arbor. His illustrious flying career began at age 14, where he spent all his free time at the airport. He soloed at 16. He attended Purdue University and became a flight instructor in the Civilian Pilot Training Program. In 1940, Donald joined Pan American Grace Airways based in Lima, Peru. In 1941 he joined American Airlines flying worldwide and was promoted to Captain at age 25. During WWII he flew worldwide contract operations for the Air Transport Command. In 1947 he flew for Aramco from New York to Saudi Arabia and in 1949 transferred to Texaco to fly and manage their worldwide flight operations as Manager/Pilot for the following 32 years.
Upon retirement from Texaco, Donald and his wife, Gladys, moved to Vero Beach, FL where he started an aviation consulting firm, working the next ten years with Flightsafety International as Director of Standards for their worldwide training centers and doing safety audits for corporate aviation operations.
Donald was married in 1940 to Barbara Bass of Hartford, CT and had two sons, Thomas and Terry. She passed away in 1947. In 1950, he married Phyllis Orr of San Francisco and three children were born, Donald, Phyllis Jean Wright and Raymond. They resided in Franklin Lakes, NJ until their divorce in 1973. In 1974, Donald married Gladys Somerville, who had four children, Thomas, Robert, Sandra Moore and Sherrill Canet.
He is also survived by thirteen grandchildren, five great-grandchildren, brother Bill, and ex-wife Phyllis.
He has been a lifelong member of VRB QB's (#9226) and OX-5 Club of America (#9022).
He has been admired for his sterling character and caring personality. His family and many friends in the personal and aviation community will miss his friendship.
Private services will be held at a later date.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Donald Baldwin, Sr., Scholarship Fund c/o the National Business Aviation Assoc., 1200 18th ST NW, Washington DC, 20036 or the VNA Hospice Foundation, 1110 35th Lane, Vero Beach, FL 32960.