Published in Midwest Flyer – August/September 2017 issue
BLOOMINGTON, MINN. – The Minnesota Aviation Hall of Fame board of directors have selected six aviators to be inducted at its 2018 ceremonies to be held April 21, 2018 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Bloomington, Minnesota.
Inductees will include Darrell E. Bolduc, aircraft engine specialist, seaplane pilot, educator and leader within the Minnesota aviation industry. Darrell Bolduc and his father, Wilmer, who was inducted in 2002, are the first father and son to be inducted.
Roland J. “Ron” Fagen, aerobatic pilot, prominent ethanol production businessman, Vietnam veteran, and aviation museum owner in Granite Falls, Minnesota, will also be inducted, as will Lt. Ralph D. Gracie, World War I fighter pilot and casualty, the first Minnesotan lost in aerial combat; Robert H. Jasperson, Vietnam air war veteran, F-4 Phantom weapons systems operator, and current Wings of the North museum director; Joseph E. Kilpatrick, who led the Honeywell team that developed the Ring Laser Gyro, among other navigational instruments used worldwide in today’s commercial and military aircraft, as well as the Space Shuttle; and popular fixed base operator, Robert O. Leaders of Clear Lake, Minnesota.
Registration information will be announced in January on the Minnesota Aviation Hall of Fame website: www.mnaviationhalloffame.org, and in future issues of Midwest Flyer Magazine.
