RIP Paul Poberezny

I met Paul a few times in the 70s at Reno. I was real surprised in 1978 that in the middle of all that stuff at AirVenture he would see me and remember me from two separate conversations a year apart, but he did. The one and only time I ever got there.

I remember in 1981 at the Friday night party the guys from Bakersfield put on at Reno for the participants, there were him and Ed Maloney,with the "Potent Smoke Oil" (a fifth of anything and everything under 25 gallons of orange kool-aid in a 55-gallon ADI drum, stirred with a canoe paddle). Paul was the one who declared it "ready," and it sure as hell was. Whoooooo...

Anyway, here's the announcement - a giant has left the room.

August 22, 2013 - EAA Founder Paul Poberezny passed away this morning (August 22) at Evergreen Retirement Village in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, after a battle with cancer. He was 91.

The Poberezny family has expressed the following: "We deeply appreciate all the support shown to Paul and Audrey over the past five months. As Paul often said, he considers himself a millionaire because through aviation he made a million friends. He leaves an unmatched legacy in aviation and can be best remembered by all the people who discovered aviation through his inspiration to create EAA. We also thank you for respecting our family's privacy during this time."

Only private family services are scheduled at this time.

What a helluva week: Elmore Leonard on the 20th, Marian McPartland on the 21st and Paul Poberezny on the 22nd. A real "hat trick" this week was.