Former Roanoke mayor Nelson Harris is an unabashed history buff. When he’s not busy as the pastor at Virginia Heights Baptist he’s assembling books of vintage photos and captions, many detailing life in the Roanoke area over the past 100 years or more. Roanoke Then & Now, Virginia Tech and Roanoke in Vintage Postcards are several of the titles Harris has released via Arcadia Publishing.
His latest is Aviation in Roanoke, co-authored with Marshall Harris (no relation). Marshall Harris’ father (Marshall L. Harris) managed the airport for almost 30 years, from its evolution as Roanoke Municipal Airport to Woodrum Field, and then to Roanoke Regional Airport. Its now officially Roanoke-Blacksburg Regional Airport.
Marshall Harris said he had been after Nelson Harris to work on a book about Roanoke’s aviation history for about ten years, before the latter Harris finally found the time.
It’s filled with photos (many supplied by Marshall Harris) of old airstrips – planes used to land near cemeteries in Roanoke due to the open swatches of land – and the ease in spotting headstones from the air.
There are vintage planes, new terminals being built, local pioneering female aviators and characters like Wes Hillman, now in his 90’s, who ran a flying school for decades at the airport.
Many of the photos in Aviation in Roanoke came from Hillman’s private collection. Hillman hung around the airport as a teenager – finally they put him to work. “He’s been part of the airport for over 80 years,” said Marshall Harris, “and he’s as passionate today with his love of aviation as he was when he first went there as a kid.”
There was once a third runway at the airport – runway 927 – but it fell victim to encroaching developing because it couldn’t be lengthened for heavier planes. That’s just one of the interesting tidbits in the book. (Nelson Harris will sign copies at the Tanglewood Barnes and Noble on June 14.)
“I grew up in the shadow of the airport,” said Marshall Harris, who sells real estate for a living. His father ran the airport for almost three decades, until 1974. The airport was carved out of cow pastures and was renamed for local Congressman Clifton Woodrum, who secured funds to expand the facility.
There are more than 200 photographs in Aviation in History. “I would say 95 percent of the images in this book have never been published before, and were not publicly available,” added Nelson Harris. “There are some real gems and treasures in this collection.”
In some of the pictures, passengers lined up ready to board their flights can be seen dressed in suits or their best dresses – harkening back to a different time and place when traveling by air was a bigger deal. “Obviously a much more formal society than the one we live in today,” said Nelson Harris.
There are photos of new airlines making their debuts as city officials cut the ribbon. American, Eastern and Piedmont’s debuts in Roanoke are all captured in vintage photos and captions.
“There’s no question that Roanoke’s airport is a key driver of the economy here and economic development in general for many decades,” said Nelson Harris. The growth and transformation depicted at its regional airfield alone in the pages of Aviation in Roanoke is a testament to that.
Aviation in Roanoke is also available online and at local bookstores.
By Gene Marrano
