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May 29, 2008 "Capt. Jepp and the Little Black Book" Terry Barnhart & Flint Whitlock Written by Tom Woodruff

     Today’s program, “Capt. Jepp and the Little Black Book,” was presented by Terry Barnhart (a former member of Club 31) and Flint Whitlock, the authors of the book of that name about aviation pioneer Elrey B. Jeppesen who was a member of Club 31.
     Barnhart recounted the circumstances under which he came to know Jepp Jeppesen and then became an author of the biography of the man who contributed more than anyone else to aviation safety.  After Jeppesen died in 1996, Barnhart spent seven years researching the book, including conducting many interviews and reviewing much memorabilia.  Then he enlisted Flint Whitlock, whose book about the Tenth Mountain Division was nominated for a Pulitzer, as co-author.  Their book came out in January of 2007 and has sold more than ten thousand copies. 
     Flint Whitlock provided a slide show and summary of Jeppesen’s life.   Jepp was born in Louisiana in 1907 and moved with his family as a young boy to Oregon where he quit school at sixteen and began his involvement in aviation at Pearson Field in Portland.  He was a flight instructor, barnstormer, and wing walker.  Wilbur Wright signed his first pilot’s license.  In 1928 he went to Texas and then to Mexico where he flew aerial photography.  The next year he retuned to the U.S. and ended up flying mail and passengers for United Airlines.  (In those days, the profit was in air mail contracts rather than in transporting passengers.)  In December of 1932, Jeppesen was injured in a crash. 
     During the thirties Captain Jepp kept notes and made sketches of airports, notebooks of which he sold to other pilots for $10.  As a United pilot, he carried the first flight of stewardesses.  His wife, Nadine, was a United stewardess.  After their marriage in 1936, Nadine helped him build the business that finally became, Jeppesen, today the world's leading digital aggregator of data and content for the aviation industry.
    The Jeppesens had moved to Denver in 1941 and built the business here.  During the Second World War, Jeppesen provided information for the Navy and Air Force.  He also flew air transports across the Pacific.  In 1954, he quit being a pilot to concentrate on the business.  He was a stickler for detail; accurate work product was crucial to aviation safety.  He sold the company in 1961 and had varying involvement in it after that.
    Jepp Jeppesen has been inducted into every aviation hall of fame.  His contribution to aviation is memorialized by the naming of the passenger terminal at Denver International Airport after him when it opened in 1995.  There is a statue of Jepp by George Lundeen at D.I.A.  Late in life, Jepp was afflicted with Parkinson’s disease.  He died in 1996.  
    This was another entertaining and informative program.