Air museum director recalls time at ‘great research centre’

MINOT, N.D. – When a young boy attending ACE camp at Dakota Territory Air Museum in Minot was sitting on the floor listening to Glenn Blackaby portray early day aviation pioneer Orville Wright, the youngster reached over and touched Blackaby.

“He really thought I was Orville,” Blackaby said. Michelle Saari, then education committee chair of the ACE/PACE camp programs, noticed when the little boy reached out and touched Blackaby on the leg.

“He wanted to say he touched Orville,” said Blackaby, amused by the child’s gesture.

Blackaby has many stories to tell about his experiences while curator and then director of the Dakota Territory Air Museum. He’s been with the air museum for 14 years, initially as a seasonal employee starting in 2006 and then became curator in March 2007. He became museum director in 2018.

Now that chapter of his life is coming to a close, the Minot Daily News reported. He will be leaving the air museum at the end of October to move to West Harrison, Indiana, to care for his youngest brother, Phillip Blackaby, who has ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, and to pursue other interests.

Phillip Blackaby worked in safety with Hess Corporation at Stanley for several years, then due to his illness moved to West Harrison to be closer to two other brothers. Phillip and a nephew, Josh Blackaby, who lives in Surrey, recently bought a farm at West Harrison. Josh Blackaby is a partner in SandPro, an oil-field company in Burlington.

“I have mixed feelings about leaving because over the years I have developed a great relationship with Don (Larson, board president) and the board,” said Blackaby.

He’s developed special relationships with many local and surrounding area people along with various entities in the area including Visit Minot, Prairie Village Museum in Rugby, Pioneer Village Museum now of Burlington and the State Historical Society of North Dakota in Bismarck.

His air museum “roots” include working with the staff. He has hired approximately 35 people over the past years there.

He’s also developed close relationships with World War II veterans who invited him to their homes. Some of the veterans have passed away but Blackaby and their family members continue their friendships. “They’re almost like family to me,” he said.

School tours have been a major part of Blackaby’s work. This year he personally guided over 1,037 children on tours of the air museum. “That’s all the way from little tots to high schoolers,” he said. Most of the tours were in April and May during the field trip season for schools.

“They are from the local schools but also from schools at long distances,” he said. Over the years he said school groups from as far away as Williston, Ray and Stanley, Montana and Canada have toured the air museum. “Some of them spent over two hours on the road just to get here. If you throw in some of these numbers from ACE and PACE, the numbers go up,” he said.

He said a major part of the field trip experience at the air museum is telling the kids — and adults as well — the true stories that represent how exciting flying can be. One of the stories he has often told tour groups is about the 1947 CallAir plane helping bring a baby into the world in Stark County in the winter of 1949. The pilot picked up the baby’s mother at the family farm and flew her to a Dickinson hospital. Several years ago the “baby” of the story, Patricia (Reiner) Reinert, and her husband of Bismarck visited the air museum and Blackaby took their picture by the plane.

“We’ve got all these remarkable stories,” he said. “This has been a great study for me — a great research centre. I have enhanced my own knowledge with just working in this museum and conversing with pilots — hearing all the stories they tell and all the information they’ve given me,” he said.

When giving a tour he also tells people facts and figures about the various aircraft.

For the tours, Blackaby has become quite proficient in telling the story of the Wright Flyer. A replica of American aviation pioneers Orville and Wilbur Wright’s plane is displayed in the air museum. “It’s our starting point on tours and it is the most important story,” he said.

Blackaby has always liked to culminate tours in the air museum’s Flying Legends Hangar. “From the days of high school I’ve read about World War II airplanes. I won’t say I’m an expert but I have learned quite a bit about them,” he said.

“The other great part of this job has been I’ve had flights in some of these older airplanes that I never would have got a ride in if I had not worked here,” he said. He’s had rides in the B-17, B-24, B-29, 1926 Travel Air and Warren Pietsch’s 1931 Waco. Dr. Hank Reichert of Bismarck gave him a ride in Dakota Kid II, a P-51 Mustang. “All of that has meant a lot to me,” he said.

Blackaby plans to make return trips to the area. Besides his nephew, he has other family members living in North Dakota including two sons, Nathan and Malcolm, and their families in Washburn. His daughter, Anna, lives in Louisiana.

“It’s been extraordinary to be part of a team with Don (Larson) and the board, and participating in the development and growth of Dakota Territory Air Museum,” Blackaby said.

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Information from: Minot Daily News, http://www.minotdailynews.com

An AP Member Exchange Feature shared by Minot Daily News