AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2014 - 112

PILOTS

AOPA AMBASSADOR

R. Anderson 'Andy' Pew
Preserving general aviation for all
B Y D AV E H I R S C H M A N
AS AOPA'S LONGEST serving board member, R.
Anderson "Andy" Pew has helped guide the
organization through times of tailwinds and
turbulence.
After 44 years on the AOPA board, Pew is
stepping back from the time-consuming volunteer position, but he will continue serving as
trustee emeritus and offering his expertise in the
clear-eyed, candid, and purposeful manner those
around him have come to expect.
"My service on the board has been based on
my desire to help and preserve general aviation,"
said Pew, 78, an instrument-rated pilot who still
owns and flies the Piper Comanche he bought
new in 1965. "Sometimes we've had to slug it out.
I've seen enough aborted regulation attempts that
AOPA has stopped over the years to know that GA
would have a fraction of the utility it enjoys today
without the association's efforts."
Pew joined AOPA in 1956 at the insistence of a
flight instructor at the Princeton Airport in New
Jersey. "I had never heard of AOPA," he said. "But
my instructor wouldn't allow me to solo until I
signed up. He told me that all I needed to know
about AOPA was that it was the organization that
would keep me flying." The instructor couldn't
have known how right he was.

LOGBOOK

WHO | R. Anderson "Andy" Pew
RATINGS | Private pilot since 1956 with
instrument, seaplane, and glider ratings.
EXTRA | First airplane ride at age 5 included

loops, rolls, and spins in an open-cockpit
Stearman biplane.

112 | AOPA PILOT October 2014

In 1970, then-AOPA-chairman Laurence P. Sharples invited Pew to
breakfast at his Philadelphia-area home for a frank talk. Sharples, one of
AOPA's 1939 founders, told Pew he wanted the younger man to replace
him as AOPA chairman. When Pew said he wasn't sure he was qualified,
Sharples gruffly dismissed Pew's resistance. "You'll figure it out," Sharples
told him, his mind already made up.
Pew played a role in selecting AOPA presidents John Baker, Phil
Boyer, Craig Fuller, and Mark Baker, and he said the board sought different strengths in each leader. In John Baker, the organization sought
credibility from a scrappy former fighter pilot who was then an FAA deputy administrator. In Boyer, the board wanted a bottom-line-oriented
media executive who could expand membership. In Fuller, the board
looked for a Washington insider who could build a powerful coalition on
Capitol Hill. In Mark Baker, the board recruited a proven business leader
who won't hesitate to make hard choices. "Our CEOs have had very different backgrounds and experiences," Pew said. "The one thing they have
had in common is an absolute commitment to GA."
Pew plans to continue flying and making full use of the freedom that
general aviation offers. "I can still push my airplane out of the hangar and
just go fly on a beautiful day," he said. "That wouldn't be possible without AOPA."
AOPA

AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2014

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