Amelia Earhart Memorial Scholarship Judges

Melana A Maxie

BS Aeronautical & Astronautical Engineering, Purdue University May 1987

Lockheed Martin Aeronautics: April 2006 to Present - F-35 Weapons Integration; Advanced Development Programs Improvements & Derivatives

Melana attributes her love of aviation to her father, who was a pilot and Aviation Division Manager For Marathon Oil Company. Melana has demonstrated this love (addiction?) by volunteering at EAA AirVenture at Oshkosh by working the flight Line, driving the Tram, and Educating youngsters in the AOPA tent. Melana has also organized ‘Kids Fly Day’ events hosted out of her hangar home on Hicks Airfield (T67) in Texas. Kids Fly Day has introduced approximately 180 children to the joys of flying over the last 4 years. This event became an much anticipated event and an Official EAA Young Eagles event for the local EAA Chapter. Last year we included volunteers from the local High School National Honor Society and Civil Air Patrol to support the event. Of course those young volunteers all went on to experience flight, some for the first time! Kids Fly Day includes interviews with military and airline pilots, as well as general aviation pilots. Participating aircraft include a hot air balloon, and aircraft ranging from RVs, Cessna 150s & 172s and 210s, to Columbias and Pipers, and even a Yak 52.

Beverly Bass

Beverley was the third female pilot hired by American Airlines in 1976 after six years of corporate, freight and charter flying along with several years of flight instructing.  After ten years of flying the B-727, MD-80 and DC-10 she became the first female captain for the airline in 1986.

She was co-founder of ISA+21 (International Society of Women Airline Pilots) in 1978, an organization that is still going strong today in spite of the troubled airline industry.

In 2002 she was the recipient of the coveted Katherine Stinson award which was presented to her in Washington D.C. as a result of her experience with her crew and passengers on 9/11.  They spent five days in Gander, Newfoundland after being forced to divert there on their way home from Paris on that fateful day.

Beverley reluctantly decided to retire in 2008 after 31 plus years with American.  Her last ten years were spent flying the airplane of her dreams, the B-777 to Europe, Asia and South America.  She also spent 16 years of her career as a Check Airman training pilots on the B-727, B-757, B-767  and B-777.

She is a graduate of Texas Christian University in Ft. Worth and currently resides in Argyle, Texas with her husband and two children.

Wolfgang Samuel USAF Col. Ret.

Wolfgang, W.E. Samuel was born in Germany in 1935, immigrated to the United States at age 16 and finished high school in Denver Colorado, two years later.  He graduated from the University of Colorado in 1960 and was commissioned a 2^nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force.  He served 30 years in the U.S. Air Force, flew strategic reconnaissance against the Soviet Union in the Cold War years and combat against North Vietnam; being awarded the distinguished Flying Cross three times and numerous Air Medals,  He obtained an MBA from Arizona State University and graduated from the national War College at Ft. McNair, Washington DC.  After retirement from the USAF in the rank of colonel, he worked for a defense contractor in the Washington area, then retired once again to write German Boy, his first book which as introduced by Stephen Ambrose and reviewed by the New York Times.