Derwin
10-25-2009, 08:07 AM
HAROLD M. GRAHAM
WORLD'S FIRST ROCKETBELT PILOT
A dear friend of mine has just passed away this Friday, October 23rd. I was informed of his death while I was in Tampa, Florida on a business trip. This news has simply devastated me, and I am still trying to work through it.
For those of you who are not familiar with who Harold Graham is... He was the world's first rocketbelt pilot, and flew the device in front of President John F. Kennedy back in 1961. He was part of the Bell Aerospace team which included Wendell Moore who invented the incredible rocketbelt. Hal was on the game show back in the early 1960's "To Tell The Truth". He made a celebrity appearance where the contestants had to guess who the "real" Harold Graham was. He owned his own private plane where he chartered flights out of Crab Orchard, TN. He always told me how much he simply LOVED flying his plane. Although his rocketbelt days were over, he always got a thrill out of flying his plane.
I've known Hal for just under 20 years when I wrote my first book: "Airwalker:A Date with Destiny". Hal allowed me to put him on the cover of that book. Over the past several months I have been working with Hal on a couple new projects. One was a special collectible coin commemorating his historic flight in front of the President. And the other is the 18" bronze statues commemorating this same flight. The coins had been completed months ago, and I sent him a batch for his personal use. I recall him telling me during one of our conversations that he always carried a bunch of the coins with him and handed them out as his "calling card". He said that he got a thrill out of giving people the coins.
The bronze statue has not been completed yet, but we were talking about the various aspects of it up until just a few weeks ago when I last spoke to Hal. I recall him saying that he wanted to have one for himself, and also give one to his sons as a Christmas gift. The final phase of the development of these commemorative statues was to be in just a week or so, and I planned on flying out to see Hal personally to present him with the very first edition of the statue.
I am heart broken over his passing. Although he would most likely never say it himself.... He was one of America's true Hero's. He was MY hero.
God Bless you Harold Graham. Rest in Peace.
Derwin
WORLD'S FIRST ROCKETBELT PILOT
A dear friend of mine has just passed away this Friday, October 23rd. I was informed of his death while I was in Tampa, Florida on a business trip. This news has simply devastated me, and I am still trying to work through it.
For those of you who are not familiar with who Harold Graham is... He was the world's first rocketbelt pilot, and flew the device in front of President John F. Kennedy back in 1961. He was part of the Bell Aerospace team which included Wendell Moore who invented the incredible rocketbelt. Hal was on the game show back in the early 1960's "To Tell The Truth". He made a celebrity appearance where the contestants had to guess who the "real" Harold Graham was. He owned his own private plane where he chartered flights out of Crab Orchard, TN. He always told me how much he simply LOVED flying his plane. Although his rocketbelt days were over, he always got a thrill out of flying his plane.
I've known Hal for just under 20 years when I wrote my first book: "Airwalker:A Date with Destiny". Hal allowed me to put him on the cover of that book. Over the past several months I have been working with Hal on a couple new projects. One was a special collectible coin commemorating his historic flight in front of the President. And the other is the 18" bronze statues commemorating this same flight. The coins had been completed months ago, and I sent him a batch for his personal use. I recall him telling me during one of our conversations that he always carried a bunch of the coins with him and handed them out as his "calling card". He said that he got a thrill out of giving people the coins.
The bronze statue has not been completed yet, but we were talking about the various aspects of it up until just a few weeks ago when I last spoke to Hal. I recall him saying that he wanted to have one for himself, and also give one to his sons as a Christmas gift. The final phase of the development of these commemorative statues was to be in just a week or so, and I planned on flying out to see Hal personally to present him with the very first edition of the statue.
I am heart broken over his passing. Although he would most likely never say it himself.... He was one of America's true Hero's. He was MY hero.
God Bless you Harold Graham. Rest in Peace.
Derwin