Randall Keith "Randy" Acord | |
|---|---|
| Born | February 27, 1919 |
| Died | May 19, 2008 (aged 89) |
| Residence | Fairbanks, Alaska |
| Occupation | United States Air Force pilot Historian; Museum curator |
| Spouse(s) | Marion Acord (until his death) |
| Notes | |
(1) Acord established partly at his own expense the Alaska Air Pioneer Museum at Pioneer Park in Fairbanks to preserve the history of aviation for future generations. (2) Acord received the Alaska-Siberian Lend Lease Award for his contributions to Russian-North American relations during World War II. (3) Acord continued to fly well into his eighties. | |
Randall Keith Acord (February 27, 1919 –May 19, 2008) [1] was a historian of American aviation who in 1992 founded the Alaska Air Pioneer Museum at Pioneer Park in Fairbanks, Alaska. [2]
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past, and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is concerned with events preceding written history, the individual is a historian of prehistory. Some historians are recognized by publications or training and experience. "Historian" became a professional occupation in the late nineteenth century as research universities were emerging in Germany and elsewhere.
The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States or America, is a country comprising 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is slightly smaller than the entire continent of Europe's 3.9 million square miles. With a population of over 327 million people, the U.S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D.C., and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital's federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico. The State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U.S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The extremely diverse geography, climate, and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries.
Aviation, or air transport, refers to the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. Aircraft includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air craft such as balloons and airships.
Acord was a native of Clarendon, the seat of Donley County in the Texas Panhandle some sixty miles east of Amarillo. He attended college for two years and worked as an electrician, when on August 18, 1941, he enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps in Lubbock, Texas. [3] In 1943, Acord was a young test pilot stationed at Ladd Field, now Fort Wainwright, an Army post in Fairbanks. He flew planes with the Cold Weather Testing Station and experimented with heating systems and landing planes with skis. He left the then United States Air Force with the rank of major. Subsequently, he was awarded the Alaska-Siberia Lend Lease Award for his contributions to Russian-North American relations during World War II. [2]
Clarendon is a city in Donley County, Texas, United States. The population was 2,026 at the 2010 census. The county seat of Donley County, Clarendon is located on U.S. Highway 287 in the Texas Panhandle, 60 miles (97 km) east of Amarillo.
Donley County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2010 census, its population was 3,677. Its county seat is Clarendon. The county was created in 1876 and later organized in 1882.
The Texas Panhandle is a region of the U.S. state of Texas consisting of the northernmost 26 counties in the state. The panhandle is a rectangular area bordered by New Mexico to the west and Oklahoma to the north and east. The Handbook of Texas defines the southern border of Swisher County as the southern boundary of the Texas Panhandle region.
Acord had a vast knowledge of aeronautics. He recorded an oral history of the technical details of his flights. His wife of fifty years, Marion Acord, who survived him, took detailed notes for the benefit of future researchers. Mike Cox, a former manager at Pioneer Park, which houses the aviation museum, said that Acord possessed a "depth of knowledge about anything related to aviation . . . a treasure trove of information." [4]
Aeronautics is the science or art involved with the study, design, and manufacturing of air flight capable machines, and the techniques of operating aircraft and rockets within the atmosphere. The British Royal Aeronautical Society identifies the aspects of "aeronautical Art, Science and Engineering" and "the profession of Aeronautics ."
Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people who participated in or observed past events and whose memories and perceptions of these are to be preserved as an aural record for future generations. Oral history strives to obtain information from different perspectives and most of these cannot be found in written sources. Oral history also refers to information gathered in this manner and to a written work based on such data, often preserved in archives and large libraries. Knowledge presented by Oral History (OH) is unique in that it shares the tacit perspective, thoughts, opinions and understanding of the interviewee in its primary form.
Acord conceived the idea for the museum in the late 1970s when the military was considering closing Fort Wainwright. However, the post remains open. The museum opened to the public in 1992 after Acord spent thousands of dollars of his own money to overcome construction setbacks. [2] [ clarification needed ]
Acord told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner that "There is so much history going away nowadays. People don't record events, and then they pass on, and it's gone. I would like to see this history passed on to the younger people of this country." [4]
The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner is a morning daily newspaper serving the city of Fairbanks, Alaska, the Fairbanks North Star Borough, the Denali Borough, and the Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area in the United States state of Alaska. It is the farthest north daily in the United States, and one of the farthest north in the world. The oldest continuously operating daily in Alaska, by circulation it is the second-largest daily in the state. It was purchased by the Helen E. Snedden Foundation in 2016. The Snedden family were longtime owners of News-Miner, selling it to a family trust for Dean Singleton and Richard Scudder, founders of the Media News Group in 1992.
History is the study of the past as it is described in written documents. Events occurring before written record are considered prehistory. It is an umbrella term that relates to past events as well as the memory, discovery, collection, organization, presentation, and interpretation of information about these events. Scholars who write about history are called historians.
Acord flew a small carrier for several years and went into business as a food distributor to outlying villages. He continued to fly until he was in his early eighties. He died in Fairbanks from complications of pneumonia. [4]
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town, with a population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Though villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighborhoods. Villages are normally permanent, with fixed dwellings; however, transient villages can occur. Further, the dwellings of a village are fairly close to one another, not scattered broadly over the landscape, as a dispersed settlement.
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung affecting primarily the small air sacs known as alveoli. Typically symptoms include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and trouble breathing. Severity is variable.
He was a member of the Air Force Memorial Foundation, chaired by H. Ross Perot. [5] He was a member of the Federal Aviation Administration "Master Pilot Award List". [6]
