A Dip Of The Wing To Pioneer In Small-Plane Business

One gets no pleasure whatever in writing column-type obituaries, and it seems they come along with depressing frequency. The city is losing too many good people.

I am thinking back on losses very costly to Seattle - not that a large city cannot be run well without them. But this city has been blessed in having some uncommon types and characters, and we become poorer, it seems to me, when the white-bearded old man with a scythe comes calling.

I am thinking now of Ivar Haglund, Betty Bowen, Eddie Carlson, Rudi Becker, Jack Lefler, "Mac" McCurdy, Lana Kurtzer, Ned Skinner, John Haydon, Ralph Potts and a host of others.

Last week, we lost another - the pioneer Seattle aviator, Jim Galvin.

As almost everyone is aware, Jim Galvin, a self-effacing old-time pilot, built his business to a point where it ranked with anything of its kind on the West Coast.

Jim's flight operation was established on Boeing Field even before the field was called by that name. At that time in 1930, Jim worked for Lana Kurtzer, another flying-service pioneer in the Pacific Northwest.

When Jim started Galvin Flying Service there were only two buildings on Boeing Field. Jim was a barnstormer all over the Northwest. He gave rides, did charter work, did aerial surveys. He sometimes went up as high as 10,000 feet, sucking oxygen from a tube attached to a portable tank.

His first little plane was a Hisso Swallow, powered by the same engine they put in Spads during World War I.

Later he bought a thing called the Ryan Brougham, which had a huge radial engine, a J-5, the sister ship to Charles A. Lindbergh's legendary "Spirit of St. Louis."

This was the plane Lindbergh flew alone, across the Atlantic to France in 1927.

As a pioneer in small planes, Galvin did anything to stay solvent - he towed banners, gave flight lessons, performed rescue work and, of course, pumped his own gas.

Are there any like Galvin left? Perhaps, but they are few and widely scattered, and very old. Jim was 87 when he died in his sleep last week.

He was more than 60 years on Boeing Field, a quiet, steady presence in the often volatile small-plane business.

Back in 1980, Jim was honored as King County's "first citizen" for his 50 years in the flying business.

So much of what you learned about this shy, yet friendly man, had to come from others. I especially like one that Jim Dilonardo told about Galvin.

"During the summer months," Dilonardo recalled, "Jim would hire these kids to gas airplanes and do chores around the place."

This was big stuff for any kid - working around airplanes.

"Then when fall came, Jim would ask them if they were going back to school. This happened several times.

"The kids would say something like, `Well, I guess I won't go back to school. I'd rather work around here.' "

" `You're fired,' " Jim would say.

The kids would get this startled look. Fired? What for?

" `Yes, you're fired,' " Jim would say. " `You go back to school where you belong. And when you've finished school, you come back and see me. I'll have a job for you then.' "

Jim turned his tiny, Depression-riddled operation into a veritable Mecca for visiting celebrities and pilots. Danny Kaye used to park his jet at Galvin Flying Service. So did George Argyros.

Actors such as Robert Taylor, Bob Cummings and Nigel Bruce were regulars. Jim even became a poker-playing buddy of John Wayne, the late great shoot-em-up star. Because Galvin's had a fuel contract with the U.S. government, almost every ranking government official stopped there.

Indeed, if Air Force One arrives in Seattle, it will take service at Galvin Flying Service.

Over the years, Jim Galvin was a stabilizing, even visionary, member of the small-plane community. He gave up flying himself in the mid-70s and devoted the rest of his life to traveling in his motorhome.

His legacy on Boeing Field is a large one. The once nearly busted small-plane operation now comprises several buildings, including a large repair hangar. The fleet of Galvin planes number 34.

The Galvin operation has 100 employees, including 15 flight instructors. Students come to Galvin's from countries as far away as Japan, Germany, Iran, Italy and Thailand.

Galvin's is now run by Jim's nephew, Peter Anderson, and a casual visitor to the place will notice little change. But as I said earlier, Jim was one of that rare breed of Seattle individualists and the city is poorer with his departure.

Emmett Watson's column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday in the Northwest section of The Times.