Clipper, Vol. 10, No. 13, June 24, 1954

              19th YEAR PACIFIC-ALASKA DIVISION
Pa/v American World Aírhave
UPPER
Read From California to Calcutta, From Alaska To Australasia
22nd YEAR PAA HAS FLOWN IN ALASKA
Voi. 10 No. 13
PUBLISHED BY THE EMPLOYEES OF PAN AMERICAN WORLD AIRWAYS
June 24, 1954
PAD'S QUARTER OF A CENTURY CLUB
Meet the principals in PAD’s first Quarter of a Century Club festivities at the Green Hills Country Club, all lined up and looking pretty after Executive Vice-President Young had handed out the 25-year pins. Left to right: Bill Eldridge, Bruce Dedge, Ken Beer, Art Zibell, Oscar Sandin, Colonel Young, Margaret Price, Don Donnelly, Jim Prunty and Tommy James. Bill Eldridge, first member of this exclusive club, got his pin some time ago.
ROMANCE-AT 85% DISCOUNT
Gerry Petrich of San Francisco Dispatch Starts A Vacation as a Miss and Comes Home a Missus
Panair Club Elects New Representatives
Members Choose Slate of 7 to Oversee Activities
The results are in!
After some spirited balloting, members of the Panair Club have elected seven new representatives who will aid the officers in directing the activities of the club for the coming year.
Here is the way the voting came out:
As representative of the Executive Department, Varena Strand-ness of Office Services won .over George Pottorff. In Industrial Relations, Polly Blackburn of Ground Training got the nod over Elaine Smith.
Maintenance had a field of five candidates, with Lyle Hollingsworth of the Jig Room and Sheldon Smith of Sheet Metal finishing ahead of Bill Dippe, Dick Ryan and Don Johnson.
Operations also chose two representatives, Waldo Raugust of Building and Facilities and (Continued on Page 4)
THIS LEADS . . .
A
Gerry Petrich and Nickie Da Rold are shown here at a gondola dock in Venice. In the background is the famous Rialto Bridge over the Grand Canal.
In September of 1952 Gerry Petrich of Dispatch in San Francisco and Mary Ross of Scheduling, same town, set out to see the continent— the continent of Europe, that is.
Among other places, they went to Venice. Two days before they were due to leave the girls were listening to a concert in one of the out-door cafes. Somehow—Gerry is a little hazy as to who said what to whom—they struck up a conversation with two of the local boys.
Two days later the girls left, but it was not long after she returned that Gerry received a letter from Nickie Da Rold. However, since the letter was written in Italian it was some time before Gerry knew what was in it.
She asked Angelo, the well-known building maintenance specialist, for assistance. After reading a few lines Angelo turned to Gerry and said, “Is this man in love with you? I don't think 1 should read any more.”
Finally A1 Farnocchia, empres-sario of the Panair Store, came to her rescue and gave her the word —or words.
That was the beginning of an 18 months correspondence. This spring Gerry set out for another European vacation, with a rather large part of it scheduled for Venice. She also took her mother along. By a coincidence, mama speaks Italian.
Nickie was just in the process of being discharged from the Italian Army. Sometime along the line Nickie proposed (in English) and Gerry said “yes.” By the time all the paper work was completed, Gerry had only three days left before she had to head for home.
The pair were married on May 6th, and after a three-day honeymoon Gerry hopped a Clipper for home.
The couple are now temporarily separated by paper work. Nickie is awaiting his visa that will enable him to join his bride. Gerry figures that it will probably be about two months before Nickie gets the all-clear signal.
Meanwhile, Gerry is reading all the cook books she can find in Dispatch.
Eight Veterans of PAD Get Their 25-Year Pins
Two Centuries of Experience Assembled Under Single Roof
Though commercial aviation barely dates back to the 1920’s, the Pacific-Alaska Division assembled a couple of hundred years of varied airline experience under one roof on the night of June 15.
The roof was that of the Green Hills Country Club in Millbrae Park and the occasion was a dinner honoring eight veterans, each of whom has given a quarter of a century of experience to the World’s Most Experienced Airline.
Here’s the way the old timers lined up (in alphabetical order) with excerpts from the thumbnail biographies given by Vice-President Clarence M. Young as he presented the coveted 25-year pins: CAPTAIN KEN BEER, who began flying the San Juan route in April, 1929, and joined the Pacific Division at Alameda in 1938: “Ken is one of the reasons that PAA can honestly make the claim of being the World’s Most Experienced Airline ... In his early days with this Division, Ken spent many happy days becoming a Master at Auto Bridge, as well as a Master Over Ocean Pilot— this was while other crew members were active in playing tennis at layover stations. Now that much time has passed, the same crew (Continued on Page 2)
. . . TO THIS
Here’s Gerry Da Rold, showing off the present that was given her by the folks in the terminal building as a surprise wedding reception given her last week.