Sue Paul remembers a time when she actually earned a salary, developing a small international division for her family's manufacturing company, Morse Starrett Products Co.
When Sue and her husband John weren't busy selling wire rope cutters, they were working on World War II Curtiss P-40 fighter airplanes in a hangar at the Caldwell Airport.
"I traveled all over the Orient for our company, and we hung out at the hangar in Caldwell on the weekends," she said.
Word of the P-40's at the Caldwell airport began to circulate. After a while, the Pauls started finding boxes of war memorabilia left at the hangar by people who said they didn't know what else to do with it. When the items began to multiply, the pair opened a nonprofit museum to preserve the collections.
The Pauls started the Warhawk Air Museum in a small hangar at the Caldwell airport in 1989, while continuing to operate their manufacturing plant in Meridian. By 2000 the museum had outgrown the hangar and needed a larger home. Sue Paul presented a business plan to the Boise Airport Commission and to the City of Caldwell. Neither was interested. But former Nampa Mayor Maxine Horn approached the Pauls and asked them to make the Nampa Airport the museum's home.
The museum rented land from the city, and started raising money for construction when producers for the movie "Pearl Harbor" approached them, seeking to use their P-40's in filming. Funds earned from the movie, as well as other donations, were used to pay for the $400,000, 20,000-square-foot-facility.
The Pauls are now in their 60's. With his 42-year-old son, John-Curtiss Paul, John runs the plant. He also helps Sue at the Warhawk Air Museum.
The Paul family's love for aircraft began with John, who was captivated by World War II F4-U Corsairs as a third-grader in 1950's Palm Springs, Calif. He also spent many afternoons visiting, sometimes by horseback, an abandoned P-51C parked at the end of a local airport runway. He would climb inside the cockpit and dream about one day becoming a pilot.
He passed his love and enthusiasm for WWII aircraft on to his wife and kids. Today the family has two fully restored and operating P-40's and a P-51C identical to the one he visited as a boy.
And now the museum is the face of the Nampa Airport, drawing thousands of students, out-of-state travelers and locals who are amazed to find an extensive collection of American history during WWII and the Cold War Era, including personal stories, memorabilia, airplanes, and equipment.
In 2010 the museum added an 18,000-square-foot-wing that is now home to Korean and Vietnam era displays, including a Mig17, F-86 Sabre Jet, and a Huey helicopter. The museum also has on display the two P-40's and a newly restored P-51C called the "Boise Bee," painted in the same scheme Boise's own Duane W. Beeson used on his P-51C during World War II. Sue Paul and Barry Hill, a member of the board of directors, entered a partnership with the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. seven years ago to preserve veterans' histories. The museum has more than 700 filmed veteran interviews. One copy is given to the veteran, one sent to the Library of Congress and another goes on file at the museum.
So, how does a nonprofit museum stay afloat? As full-time volunteer executive director herself, Sue realizes that volunteers are critical. Museum board members donated more than 10,000 hours last year, she said. The museum only has a few paid employees.
"Without volunteers, nonprofits would not make it," she said.
The museum is supported by financial donors, gift shop sales, admissions, special events, grants and foundation support, and museum memberships. The museum can also be rented for special events.
Sue said anyone starting a business, especially a museum, should go slowly and create a strong mission statement and business plan.
"It helps to keep you reined in and focused," she said of developing a business plan. "It's great to have goals, but you have to know how you are going to achieve them. "
When the economy went downhill, Sue created a fund, supported by donations from local foundations, service clubs and individual donors, to help schools pay the $4 per student price for field trips to the museum.
"The recession has hurt us all, but the good news is that local people aren't traveling as much, " she said. "They are staying close to home, so we've maintained good local visitor traffic throughout the summer. The other key has been constant change on the display floor, so people want to come back. They always know they are going to see something different here. "
