By Craig Mailloux
Early in 2010, Santa Paula Airport Board President Rowena Mason approached me about doing a picture book on the Airport for its 80th anniversary that year. There wasn’t near enough time, so the project was moved to 2015 for the 85th anniversary.
While thinking about it and how best to proceed, it was clear that it should be more than just a picture book. It needed to reflect the story of the airport, but heavy on the photography, both vintage and current.
My background is in journalism as a wire service photographer and picture editor, then as a newspaper director of photography and photo editor, with a little writing now and then. I’m also a pilot who learned to fly at Santa Paula and have been on the airport since 1993.
Even with five years to complete the project for the airport’s 85th anniversary, it was obviously clear that I couldn’t do it by myself and I would need to assemble a team. The first year was spent mapping out what should be done, research, looking for printers to determine feasibility and cost, and then start recruiting a staff.
The Museum agreed to fund the book and all proceeds beyond the printing cost would go to the Museum. Everyone associated with the book volunteered their time and talent and it is so greatly appreciated.
The first two people that came to mind were Wendell Dowling and Janice Dickenson. Wendell, a graphic artist, was excited to do the design and collaborate on the layout. Wendell also wrote the Mason Family story as he was married to Lynne Mason. Married to Bruce Dickenson, Janice has been chronicling the early history of the airport and the Dickenson Family for years. They came aboard and the recruiting continued.
It was decided to break the writing up with four writers. Janice would do the pre-airport years, the opening, and the 1930s, plus the Dickenson Family story, as well as several other smaller pieces. Local historian, author, and pilot Mitch Stone would write about the 1940s and ‘50s, and pilot Jerry Deanda would write about the modern era. Jim Phelps wrote about his dad, Bob Phelps, and the Phelps Family. Local writer Peggy Kelly was asked to write about the Hollywood connection, including Steve McQueen, Clete Roberts, and Oscar winner Cliff Robertson, all pilots who had hangars at the airport.
Local historian and photographer John Nichols donated some of his vintage collection of photos; pilot and photographer Mike Terry contributed the photos of vintage Santa Paula airplanes from his Aviation Legends calendar series. The Museum of Ventura County donated photos from their collection.
Numerous people from the airport and the community donated photos for the book. Chris Wells, an airport baby from the 1940s, dug through her considerable archive of airport photos for us.
For the 50th anniversary book, anyone who wanted to have their photograph included could do so by showing up over a couple of days for pictures. That wouldn’t work for what we were doing. We decided early on that the airport had grown so much that we could not possibly include everyone in the book. It was decided to do as many short vignettes of various folks as would fit.
Numerous airport people were asked to do the vignettes and they stepped in. Amongst them were Gigi Pridmore, Mark Hanson, Dave Watson, Bruce Anspaugh, Mike Dewey, Stan Franks, Gail Dullenkopf, Judy Phelps, and Carol Mailloux.
Word editing is always a tedious chore that needs doing. Fortunately, in our early stages we had local pilot Marion Nauman, who is also a real life professional copy editor. She helped out in the early days of production, wrote a vignette or two and then was sidelined with health issues. Carol Mailloux stepped in, as well as others, to review the words.
Finally, early this year it was time for Wendell and me to get together and begin the months-long design, layout and editing process. Working side by side with Wendell is such a privilege and fun. Surprisingly, we agreed on darn near everything. Early this summer the book went to the printer and the proofs came back.
Corrections were made and then we received two advance copies to judge the binding of the books. It was the whole book, assembled by hand. Wendell didn’t know it was coming or had arrived. I walked a copy over to Wendell in his office over the Museum and handed him his copy. He was sitting at his computer, and he just held the book in his hands. Speechless for a moment, he smiled, and said, “Wow.”
There really was a book and he was so proud of it. He took it home with him. He read it, shared it, talked about it. About a month later, on Saturday, September 8, word went out that Wendell had passed away unexpectedly the night before. At least he was able to see the finished book. The book has been dedicated to Wendell and each one will have a memorial bookmark honoring Wendell.
So many people contributed to the book it is impossible to list them all. In addition to those named above, there were numerous interviews, people going through their personal photo archives, others stopping by to relate stories over the years, identify faces in faded photographs, or just answer questions. The project was truly a labor of love.
On Saturday, October 17, from 3PM to 6PM, the Aviation Museum will be hosting a book-signing event at the Museum. As many of the Book Team folks as possible will be on hand to sign the book for those purchasing a book or bringing one in that they have already bought.
