Harrison M. Gill

Harrison was born in Miami, Florida on March 13, 1927. He was the only child to William R. Gill and Ida Liebel Gill. The family moved to Huntsville Alabama where he was raised with his male cousins until he enlisted in the Navy during World War II on March 14, 1944 the day after his 17th birthday. He served his country as Seaman First Class until June of 1946 as an Aviation Ordnance Man and worked on P-51 Mustangs on an aircraft carrier and in Guam where he received the honors Asiatic Pacific Area Ribbon, American Area Ribbon, Commendation Ribbon, and a Victory Medal.

Harrison returned to Huntsville to finish high school where he graduated from Huntsville High School in 1947 with his future wife Jeanette Smith. Harrison and Jeanette married June 12, 1948 and moved to Dallas, Texas where he lived for 64 years, while raising daughters Kathy, Suzan and Chris who all graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School. The family attended St. Francis, Good Shepherd and St Mathias Episcopal Churches.

Harrison was accepted in 1948 to Major Long’s Dallas Aviation School on Love Field Airport. He worked for Braniff International Airways from 1949-1954 on Lemmon Ave. and he learned to fly in 1950 at Old Mustang Airport, formerly located at NW Hwy and Abrams. He built his first airplane, a Vagabond in 1952 in his garage then towed it to Jap Lee’s Airport formerly located in Irving. The family spent many hours at Jap Lee’s and built lifelong relationships with the other men and their families. He next worked for American Airlines at Amon Carter Field, then Air Services at Addison Airport where he worked contract for Research and Development flights for Texas Instruments. Texas Instruments was so impressed with his work that they hired him to run the maintenance division of their flight department on Love Field Airport for over twenty years, where he maintained all aircraft including Lear Jets.

He retired from Texas Instruments in 1991 at the age of 64 and continued private aircraft maintenance, and building private aircraft for himself and others at Addison Airport, Aero Country Airport McKinney, and Mesquite Metro Airport. He volunteered more than 2000 hours for the Frontiers of Flight Museum at Dallas Love Field, giving tours and passing along his wealth of information to visitors. He finally retired in 2008 at the age of 81 from his last job working at Addison Airport for local Dallas businessman Charles “Cully” Cullwell who titled Harrison a “Mechanical Aviation Guru” in an issue of EAA Magazine after they rebuilt a DeHavilland Beaver and won an award at the Oshkosh Air Show.

Throughout his life time Harrison built and or refurbished more than twenty-five private, government, and experimental aircraft, including P-51 Mustang’s, Piper Cub and Piper Super Cubs, DeHavilland Beaver’s, DC-3’s, B-25’s, A-26’s, T-6’s, Starduster, Cessna 182’s, Convair’s, and a Vagabond.

Harrison received more than ten awards over the years including the prestigious “Charles W. Penry” Award in 1988 from the DFW PAMA Chapter; the “Aviation Maintenance Technician Safety” Award for 36 or more consecutive years without an accident involving damage to property or injury to persons from the National Business Aircraft Association; and in 1998 the Charles Taylor “Master Mechanic” Award for dedicated service, technical expertise, professionalism, and maintenance contributions to Aviation Safety.

Harrison worked hard his entire life to provide for his family with a work ethic and integrity that is hard to match. With his passing the world has lost a mass of aviation history and maintenance knowledge that few in the business possessed. He loved his family, his neighbors, the holidays, dogs, horses, and flying. He was loved by his family and friends in spite of his cantankerous side and is dearly missed.

After a courageous five months fighting several bouts of pneumonia, Harrison left us on Tuesday, June 5, 2012 to join wife Jeanette, daughter Kathy and great granddaughter Sarah Lynn in heaven. He is survived by his daughter Suzan Gill Murray and husband Tom, and daughter Chris Gill Adams and husband Neal, his grandson James M. Smith and wife Tracy; great grandsons Ethan and Ashton, as well as grandson Gil D. Fleshman and wife Cynthia; great grandchildren Sean, Dylan, Alyssa, Daniel, Timothy, Abigail, Emily, and Hannah.

Our special thanks go out to Kim, David, & Vivie Bowe, Paige Hammett Masters, and Margie Keene Culberson who spent the last two years of his life helping us care for him and filling his life with love and laughter. Additional special thanks go out to all his care givers at Bentley Manor Assisted Living and Presbyterian Village North Nursing Home who with all their hearts provided him the best care the family could have ever hoped.

A memorial service will be held Friday June 15, 2012, at Sparkman Hillcrest Funeral Home, 7405 W. Northwest Highway, Dallas, TX 75225 at 10:00am with a reception to follow. Donations may be made in his honor to the Operation Kindness no-kill animal shelter located at 3201 Earhart Dr., Carrollton, TX 75006, 972-418-7297, www.operationkindness.org; or flowers will be welcome.

In honor of a man who loved his family, his country, aviation, horses, and the State of Texas please wear western, military, airplane, or patriotic attire in Red, White, and or Blue.