Durston G. Richardson

...

He graduated in 1917, ae. 21 (born Lockport, N.Y. April 22, 1896) from Cornell Flying School as one of two, in a class of twelve, to pass the physical tests. He served in the Army Air Forces, and I think I remember he was Flying Instructor at Love Field, Texas...

...it would seem that he joined Aeromarine Airways in 1918 and was with them several years... Other early dates are hazy, but I do now that he was Flight Instructor in Havana for the Cuban Army; that he barnstormed, dusted cotton, and what-not; was at one time with the C.A.B. and Cia. Mexicana.

About 1929, or whenever Pan. Am. started their Western Division operations out of Brownsville, Texas, Rich was made Operations Mgr. of that division. Those I am sure were fascinating days, for there were no airfields, which had to be made, and this was the era when the payroll had to be dropped at key times because of the bandits. The whole mountainous route through Central America and northern coast of South America was his territory, and he can be credited with much basic pioneering of the route. Later on, he is credited in a plaque in the Brownsville terminal today of instituting instrument flying. By early 1939, the airline was running successfully, and had been for many years, and Rich succumbed to the temptation of starting a new one! Flyers DO get bored with the "milk run" as he called it!...

And so, as V.P.-Operations, Rich joined the about to be formed American Export Airlines, later American Overseas Airlines, and the ruckus started all over again. This was the subsidiary of Am. Export S.S. Lines, and the one to break the Pan. Am. monopoly, with Rich giving much of the testimony in Washington. Case was won, and operations started, the "hangars" being tents out at Port Washington, Long Island, N.Y., with the mechanics often having to make their own tools...

Well, this airline flew all over Europe and, I think, N. Africa, and we were with it all during World War II, when he variously also operated it for the Army & Navy...

About 1947 Rich was offered the chance to start the first international Mexican airline: subsidized partially by Winston Guest, and named Guest Airlines. Again head of operations. This at the time I believe, was supposed to be the longest over-water route in the world. Europe and Africa.

We spent ten all too pleasant years in Mexico by which time Rich felt the airline was well established; and then, among six choices, he chose my hometown of Boston and Northeast Airlines, where George Gardiner, an old friend, was President. Rich stayed with N.E. three years, and then decided to retire for a heart condition was making itself felt...

...plans, as usual, were changed... The Agency for International Development caught up with us... Rich (accepted)...three months' consultant job for the Italian Somaliland... Two weeks after his return, A.I.D. sent him to Aghanistan; and after that to Bolivia... Other temporaray consultant jobs for A.I.D. were offered...but the health condition made it sensible to stay in the U.S.A...

...on January 2nd, 1974, at 77 yrs., 8 mos., he died... He did much I understand, for early aviation; and dozens of his employees loved him enough to follow him from one airline to another, to the end.

Above are excerpts of a letter (dated May 2, 1976) from Mrs. Durston G. Richardson to Professor Bill Leary,
giving an account of Durston Richardson's career.
(Courtesy of Professor Bill Leary, Department of History, University of Georgia, Athens, GA)

Letter written by Aeromarine Pilot Durston Richardson, 1922
This letter was written by Durston Richardson to his parents,
showing how proud he was of being in charge of one of the twin-engined Model 75s - state-of-the-art flying boats of the day.
(Courtesy of Professor Bill Leary, Department of History, University of Georgia, Athens, GA)

This page last updated February 12, 2012.