A Will To Fly Airplanes: 5 Questions With Gene Will, Airport Authority Member for 48 Years
NEW KNOXVILLE — Gene Will has more in common with Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the surface of the moon, than may first meet the eye.
Both spent significant portions of their lives in Auglaize County and each have ties to the University of Cincinnati. Will earned his degree in mechanical engineering from UC, while Armstrong taught there following his historical 1969 lunar walk. Both private and reserved individuals, Armstrong and Will shunned the spotlight during their respective careers and downplayed their accomplishments. Also, both were pilots.
For the past 48 years, Will served on the board of directors of the airport in New Knoxville that bears Armstrong’s name. That connection ended earlier this year when Will resigned as a member of the Auglaize County Airport Authority, which oversees operations at the Neil Armstrong Airport, citing medical reasons. In a letter to the Auglaize County board of commissioners, Will proudly stated, “I have watched the airport grow from a 4,000-foot patch of asphalt in a field to one of the top county airports in the state.”
Neil Armstrong Airport was dedicated on Oct. 8, 1967, after Armstrong’s successful Gemini 8 flight. In 1970, Auglaize County received a grant to build a terminal, which was completed in 1971. A spacious and modern terminal was completed in 2021. The airport, which had its beginnings as the New Knoxville Airport Corporation, formed in 1955 along state Route 219, started as little more than a grass runway and has been expanding ever since.
Will obtained his pilot’s license in 1979, and around that time he was asked to temporarily fill a vacancy on the airport board.
“I said ‘hell no,’” Will recalled, but he ultimately agreed to take a seat on the board until a replacement could be found. More than 40 years later, he still held that seat.
“Gene has been a wonderful knowledge source,” said Ted Bergstrom, the airport manager for the past nine years. “He’s an airport advocate, somebody that has a solid work ethic and someone who always had the airport’s best interest in mind. He has such a positive attitude, and to him ‘no’ is never an answer. He’s always looked at how do we find a solution to any problem and make this a better place.”
A native of New Bremen, Will’s career led him to Los Angeles, New York and Pennsylvania before eventually leading him back to Auglaize County and his current home in Minster. He spoke recently about the growth of the airport, his love of flying and his time as a member of the airport authority.
1. How did you first become interested in aviation?
I got my pilot’s license here and bought my first airplane in April of 1980. In my job working for a large corporation, my customers were spread over six or seven states. I would leave home on Monday morning and go, say, to Pittsburgh, and spend two or three days there and then come home.
All that time my wife was at home, going to grad school and taking care of our young son and mowing the law and doing all that stuff. I said I needed to get a plane, and that really worked out well. I could fly to Pittsburgh in the morning, have two or three meetings and be back for dinner. That’s how it all started.
Flying has always been a passion since I was a little kid, I just never had the means to to do it.
2. What improvements have most boosted the airport’s traffic?
Back in 1968 (Ohio) Gov. (Jim) Rhodes said he wanted every county to have an airport and gave the airport a little grant. At the time we had a runway, or a strip of blacktop that we called a runway, that was 4,000 feet long and 75 feet wide. I mean for little planes it worked, but you couldn’t land jets there.
I knew that we were going to grow and would need a longer runway, Finally we got a grant from the FAA to increase the size of our runway. We lengthened it from 4,000 feet to 5,500 feet and widened it to 100 feet. That’s now a good runway for corporate jets.
3. Did that upgrade lead to increased use?
We have seven jets or turbo-props, jets with propellers, who are based here. Crown Control leases two hangars, and J-B Tool, Midmark, Pratt Industries have brought some larger jets in here. The Way International (formerly based in New Knoxville) rented a large hangar here for years but eventually sold it. We’ve also got a good number of pilots based here that fly just for recreation, too.
4. What sets Neil Armstrong Airport apart?
I think we’ve got one of the top five airports in the state. We’ve got fuel, service, mechanics on site and can arrange car rentals. We can bring in catering for business meetings. You can see some airports develop and some don’t, and the ones that don’t typically have a board full of pilots. All they want to do is vote on cheap rent and cheap fuel.
5. Did you ever have a scary moment in the air?
In 47 years of flying, I had never had a hiccup until a couple of years ago. My wife and I were taking off for Chicago, and we got right over Hoge Lumber (in New Knoxville), and I knew something wasn’t right. The engine blew up and caught fire.
At that point I had to set the plane down with no engine. The roads are real narrow out here, and I didn’t want to try landing on a road because I had a full fuel tank and an engine on fire. So I kept turning and landed in a field. We just had about six inches of rain, and it was like landing in wet concrete. We weren’t injured, but we had to totally rebuild the airplane. It’s been in the shop for almost a year and a half now. I haven’t been back up (in the air) since then, but I want to.
“I have watched the airport grow from a 4,000 foot patch of asphalt in a field to one of the top county airports in the state.”
— Gene Will
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