Tributes by Dr. Glenn

Tribute to Dick Schwabe

I read of Dick’s death in the Record Courier yesterday and was saddened by the news. To put it concisely, Dick was a great guy.
I met Dick shortly after I came to Kent to be a professor at Kent State University. I had completed my education at The Ohio State University after serving as an officer in the US Navy. While in the Navy, I was in the flight training program, but half way through, the Navy changed the rules and I had a choice of continuing my flight training and extending for three more years…or returning to a ship to serve the remainder of my three year obligation. I chose the latter and did not receive my wings. The urge to fly still stirred within me when I arrived in Kent and I decided to use my GI Bill award to pursue my Commercial Pilot’s license, since the program had just been reinstated and I had used none of it on my doctorate. It was at that point that Dick entered my life. I always called him Mr. Schwabe or Dick…I could never call him “Schwabie” as others did, probably because the navy term “swabbie” sounded so similar and usually had a more negative connotation. Dick was a tough (“get your ass over here”), but fair, teacher and we always got along great…probably because of my advanced age of thirty, my respect for his service to our country and his respect for my service in the Navy.

My favorite story about Dick, of course, involved flying. One day I was practicing “slow fight” over East Twin Lake (where I now live) and discovered that by heading directly into a strong wind, I could hold my position directly over one spot in the lake and appear not to move…it was if I was suspended in the air. The stall warning kept buzzing and I remained in one spot. When I returned to the KSU field, I told Dick about my “discovery.” Dick then told me about the day at the Put-in-Bay airport, when he took off and had so much trouble climbing out in his small plane because of a strong headwind that he allowed the plane to slowly reverse direction over the airport until he was able to, without turning in any direction, land the plane. After a “touch and go,” he was able to repeat this maneuver three consecutive times, much to the approval of the growing crowd near the hanger. My guess is the Dick is one of the very few pilots who have ever taken off and landed three times at the same airport without ever changing his heading!!!

Of course, Dick did many things in an airplane that most pilots have never done! He was the master and we just watched in awe.

I only knew Dick from our contacts at the airport, but he had my respect and admiration. He was a fine man and my life was made better by knowing him.

Respectfully,

Glenn Saltzman