ABOUT RUPA
RUPA HISTORY: RUPA got it’s start in 1963 when Dick Petty wrote Bill Kennedy suggesting the retired pilots of UAL form a Social Organization to keep in contact with each other. At the first meeting in October 1963, Bill Kennedy was elected President, Bill Williams VP and Harry Huking Secretary Treasurer. Since the beginning RUPA has had a total of 27 Presidents. We are a 501(C)7 Social Organization allowing us to enjoy the camaraderie and friendships formed over decades on the flight deck and continue that into our retirement years through Local Area Groups throughout the country and our monthly RUPANEWS magazine. View the RUPA Wall of Honor at the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum.
Past Presidents
- Willis Kennedy
- Leo Kriloff
- Albert Stainback
- Hugh Coleman
- E. Brown Gray
- Charles Chapman
- George Tremble
- Douglas Wilson
- John Strong
- Sylvanus J. Devine
- Robert P. Callaghan
- Donald Bisson
- William Knight
- Eugene Tritt
- William Stookey
- Walter Ramseur
- Milt Jines
- D. A. Scott Prescott
- W. E. Bill Smith
- W. R. Bill Bartel
- Rich Bouska
- Cleve Spring
- D. L. Larry Wright
- Ronald Jersey
- Phyllis Cleveland
- Jonathan Rowbottom
- Francis V “Cort” de Peyster
- Bob Engelman
- John Gorczyca
William A. "Pat" Patterson
Patterson was born on a sugarcane plantation in Waipahu on Oahu, Hawaii. When Patterson was 13, his widowed mother moved to San Francisco, California, while he remained at Honolulu Military Academy. Not liking the academy, he decided to leave. He persuaded a captain to allow him to work on his ship in exchange for passage to San Francisco.