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Donald Gregory"Don" Class Officer 54,55; Band 54,55,56; L Club 55,56; Junior Play 54; Football 54,55,56. |
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Donald Gregory"Don" Class Officer 54,55; Band 54,55,56; L Club 55,56; Junior Play 54; Football 54,55,56. |
Patricia Gregory passed away March 5, 2005
2006
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The life and times of Don Gregory.
After High School I attended William Jewell College where I majored in Physics and other extra curricular activities. Graduating from Jewell I joined the U.S. Marine Corps. I went to flight school in Pensacola, Florida and then on to Kingsville, Texas. While in Kingsville I married Patricia Wilson of Kirkwood, Missouri. After receiving my wings I was stationed in the Los Angles area for 18 months. I then was stationed in Atsugi Japan, which is just outside of Tokyo for a year. We flew air defense for the Japanese Islands. We stood five minute hot pads and worked off of aircraft carriers. While in Japan I got to tour Formosa, Hong Kong and the islands of Japan. Returning to the states I was stationed in Beeville, Texas where I trained new pilots in fighters and commissioned brand new Second Lieutenants.
After being in Beeville for two years I resigned from the Marine Corps and went to work for TWA. Because of my background in training I was asked to train Flight Engineers in the simulators and airplane. After two years in the training center I finally got to be a pilot again. I retired from TWA in 1998 and went to work for FlightSafety Inc., in St Louis. I set up a training program for them on the Commuter airplane the ERJ-135.
While with TWA I flew the B-707, B-727, B-767, B-757 the DC-9 and the MD-80. Of all my time only 34 hours was not jet time. At TWA I instructed on almost all the airplanes I flew, and I was a maintenance test pilot on the B-727. I was also in the first cadre of pilots to fly a two engine passenger jets across the Atlantic. My last years at TWA were spent as The Flight Manager of Training on the B-727.
While at the training center Pat and I adopted a little boy, who we called Jeff. After I started flying the line we had two children the old fashion way, a boy named Jason and a beautiful little girl named Joanna. We built a house in Gladstone, Missouri and I still live there. As a pilot I was based in Kansas City, St Louis and New York City.
My kids are all college graduates and are successfully moving on with their lives. I have two outstanding grand-children. I lost Pat, after 44 years of marriage, to cancer in 2005 and I am now in the process of rebuilding my life and trusting that God knows where I am headed. I keep busy volunteering at Children’s Mercy Hospital, the Follies and The Kansas City Northern Railroad as well as at Church.
