Edward Vernon "Eddie" Rickenbacker, 1890 - 1973
Portrait by Underwood and Underwood (ca. 1919)
Born: 8 October 1890, Columbus, Ohio
Died: 27 July 1973, Zürich, Switzerland
Born Edward Reichenbacher to a German-speaking Swiss family at Columbus, Ohio, he left school in the seventh grade to support his mother after his father died. He made a name as a race-car driver, then changed it to Rickenbacker when anti-German sentiment increased in the run up to World War I. He thought the new name looked plain so signed his name 26 times, liked the looks of the name best with "V" as his middle initial, then chose Vernon as a middle name. He used his talent with gasoline engines to get attached to the Army's air group and learned to fly in his off hours, because his superiors didn't want to lose his talent as a mechanic. After securing his own replacement he became America's "Ace of Aces" with 26 downed planes. He earned the Medal of Honor attacking a group of seven German planes, five Fokker fighters guarding two Halberstadt photo-reconnaissance planes, shooting down one of each and scattering the rest. He also was given seven Distinguish Service Crosses, the Victory Medal, and the Croix de guerre.
After the war he started a car company which went bankrupt, leaving $250,000 in debt, which he personally repaid. He bought the Indianapolis Speedway in 1927, operating the 500 until 1941. Rickenbacker managed Eastern Air Transport for General Motors, then and bought the operation and renamed it Eastern Airlines. He would spend the rest of his life battling the Civil Aeronautics Board. He suffered serious injuries as a passenger in a crash of a DC-3 outside Atlanta in 1941. While on a tour of the Pacific Theater he was aboard a B-17D Flying Fortress that ditched due to a navigation error, he and six others survived 24 days in two life rafts. His stubborn and vocal opposition to the CAB damaged Eastern's ability to operate, the board forced him out as president in 1953, he retired as Chairman of the Board in 1963. The Rickenbakers traveled extensively in retirement, he suffered a stroke in Switzerland, this was followed by a bout of pneumonia and his death.
Biography from Wikipedia
Eddie Rickenbacker quotes:
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- Aviation is proof that given the will, we have the capacity to achieve the impossible. permalink
Eddie Rickenbacker - Courage is doing what you are afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you are scared. permalink
Eddie Rickenbacker - I am not such an egotist as to believe that God has spared me because I am I. I believe there is work for me to do and that I am spared to do it, just as you are. permalink
Eddie Rickenbacker - I would rather have a million friends than a million dollars. permalink
Eddie Rickenbacker - I've cheated the Grim Reaper more times than anyone I know, and I'll fight like a wildcat until they nail the lid of my pine box down on me. permalink
Eddie Rickenbacker - If you think about disaster, you will get it. Brood about death and you hasten your demise. Think positively and masterfully, with confidence and faith, and life becomes more secure, more fraught with action, richer in achievement and experience. permalink
Eddie Rickenbacker - One of the hardest things to teach a child is that the truth is more important than the consequences. permalink
Eddie Rickenbacker - The four cornerstones of character on which the structure of this nation was built are: Initiative, Imagination, Individuality and Independence. permalink
Eddie Rickenbacker - The sensation of dying is sweet, sensuous, placid. It is the easiest thing in the world to die. The hardest is to live. permalink
Eddie Rickenbacker - There is something spiritual — I don't know what else to call it — in the feeling you get up there. permalink
Eddie Rickenbacker - Think positively and masterfully, with confidence and faith, and life becomes more secure, more fraught with action, richer in achievement and experience. permalink
Eddie Rickenbacker - When I look up and see the sun shining on the patch of white clouds up in the blue, I begin to think how it would feel to be up somewhere above it winging swiftly through the clean air, watching the earth below. permalink
Eddie Rickenbacker
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