Citizens Memorial Hospital | Vitality | Winter 2017

COMMUNITY TAGLINE HERE citizensmemorial.com 15 event that Engledow doesn’t miss. Last year he drove himself to the air show, and this year he was flown there and back in one day. Engledow was also honored this summer at the Springfield–Branson Airport. He took a ride aboard a B-25 Mitchell bomber, named Maid in the Shade, while it was on a U.S. and Canadian tour. Engledow was given the honor of signing his name on the bomber, alongside other World War II icons, including Rosie the Riveter. HONORS ABOUND Engledow has met Air Force general officer and record-setting test pilot Chuck Yeager and American aviation pioneer Jimmy Doolittle, who even signed his first pilot’s license. Former Bolivar Mayor John Best, M.D., proclaimed Oct. 7, 2012, to be Gene Engledow Day, and in 2013 the Bolivar Municipal Airport named its airfield the Gene Engledow Field. In 2005, Engledow received the Wright Brothers Master Pilot certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration for more than 50 years of accident-free flying, as well as the Charles Taylor Master Mechanic award for 50 years of violation-free maintenance. Engledow enjoys drinking a cup of coffee at a local café and sharing stories with fellow Butterfield Residential Care Center residents. He recently celebrated his 104th birthday with a large party at the Bolivar Municipal Airport, surrounded by his many friends and family. HAVINGANAIRVENTURE Engledow is something of a local celebrity. The Bolivar Herald-Free Press featured him in an article celebrating a trip he took to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, for the Experimental Aircraft Association Airventure. While there, Engledow recorded his memories of the Doolittle Raid at the Paul Harvey Studios. The trip to Oshkosh is an annual CMH salutes Butterfield resident Gene Engledow Gene Engledow, 104, lives life to the fullest. Engledow, a resident at Butterfield Residential Care Center in Bolivar, is an avid aviation enthusiast who has flown for more than 80 years. At age 99, he was recertified as a pilot. Growing up on a farm in the Midwest, Engledow was interested in airplanes at a young age. He moved to California in 1936 and worked as a mechanic at a Ford dealership in Oxnard. He began taking flying lessons at a nearby airport and earned his private pilot’s license at the age of 23. In 1940, Engledow started working as an aircraft mechanic at a local civilian pilot training school in Oxnard. The attack on Pearl Harbor the next year plunged the country into war, and Engledow joined the 305th Sub-Depot Army Air Forces unit. DURINGAND AFTER WORLDWAR II Engledow was part of a crew that retrofitted the B-25 bomber for the Doolittle Raid over Japan more than 75 years ago in April 1942. His crew was tasked with making the bombers lighter so they could go farther, and they succeeded. Engledow is believed to be the last surviving member of the crews that repurposed the bombers used in the raid. After the war, Engledow operated an airport in Taft, California, and then moved to Missouri to work at the General Motors plant in Kansas City, which made Republic F-84F jet fighters. Engledow also worked on B-47s at Whiteman Air Force Base and moved to Neosho in 1957 to work at Boeing’s Rocketdyne subsidiary, which makes rocket engines for the space program. His company, Engledow Aviation, operated the airport in Neosho before he retired in 1975, moving to Bolivar with his wife, Grace. Gene Engledow is a beloved resident of Butterfield Residential Care Center. RIGHT: Mementos from Engledow’s flight on a B-25 Mitchell bomber and 305th Sub-Depot Army Air Forces unit High flying, adored COMMUNITY