Frank Kaeser

Frank C. Kaeser, 94, of Windsor died June 25 at the hospice unit of the Hebrew Home and Hospital in Bloomfield. Known as Whitey for the shock of blond hair that turned white in midlife, he was born in 1916 in Hartford, grew up in East Hartford and lived there for 89 years. He was long a member of historic Boy Scout Troop 1 that still meets today at the Center Congregational Church, only a few blocks from where he grew up on Orchard St. After graduating from East Hartford High School, his interest in airplanes, engines, and solving the problems of all things mechanical led him to enroll at the Harvard H. Ellis Technical School in Putnam. Now the oldest public aviation mechanic school in the U.S., the program began in 1930. Frank enrolled in 1934 and he commuted to Putnam from East Hartford on his Indian motorcycle. After graduating in 1937, Frank began working in the airplane maintenance hanger at Pratt & Whitney Aircraft. He eventually became chief of aircraft maintenance and held that job until his retirement in 1977. His career saw the continuing technical evolution of airplanes and engines. Pratt & Whitney’s Wasp radial piston engine was first run in 1929 and evolved through the end of World War II when the company developed turbojet and turbofan engines that powered a host of airplanes made by Boeing, Douglas, Lockheed, and more. Before Pratt & Whitney ended its outside service program, Frank worked on a wide range of corporate planes and even those of celebrities like Amelia Earhart and Wiley Post. The company eventually expanded its own fleet of planes to include jets like the Lockheed Jetstar and, ultimately, a JT8D-powered Boeing 727 that the company flew each week to Europe. Frank took pride in the fact that during his four decades, Pratt & Whitney’s fleet never lost a plane, although the pilots sometimes needed reassurance. He received a call late one night from a pilot in Colorado who was reluctant to take off because he said he smelled gasoline in the cockpit. Frank thought for a few seconds and said, “You can’t smell gas in the cockpit. There is none. Just fly the plane.” The flight arrived uneventfully. After retiring in 1977, Frank and his friend Fred Albrecht, a WWII pilot, restored a 1948 Aeronca 15AC Sedan. Frank went on to learn plumbing and worked for years with his friend Henry Deming. As his final project in retirement, Frank and Fred restored a 1947 Sikorsky S-51 helicopter for the collection of the New England Air Museum. Frank was married for 59 years to Doris (Lennox) who died in 2004. He leaves a daughter, Corry, and husband, Steve Cote, of Broadbrook; a son, Scott, and wife, Karen Schindehette, of West Hartford; and a granddaughter, Elizabeth, of Kew Gardens, NY. He also leaves a brother, William, and sisters Janet Pesente, Ruth Hawley, and Evelyn Joudy of New Fairfield, as well as a sister, Jeanne Washburn, of Bellvue, Colorado. His sister Christine Kaeser, a star softball pitcher, of New Fairfield died in 2004. Calling hours from 8:30am to 10:30am on July 1 at the Newkirk & Whitney Funeral Home, 318 Burnside Ave., East Hartford will be followed by a funeral service there at 10:45am. Burial will be at Mountain View Cemetery, Bloomfield. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made in Frank’s name to the New England Air Museum, Windsor Locks.

To leave an online condolence and visit Frank’s tribute please visit www.Newkirkandwhitney.com