NW program receives $31,000 grant to honor aviation pioneer
by Rawly Bransom, Sports Editor

    The aeronautical and aviation technology department on NW Campus received a $31,000 donation this summer to honor an aviation pioneer.
    In June, the McNeill family presented TCC with the John D. "Mac" McNeill Aviation endowment.
     The donation, which include a an annual $1,000 scholarship, is one more step in making the TCC Aeronautics program the premier aviation department in Texas, Floyd Curtis, program division chair, said.
     "I have been to the other programs in Texas, and we are considered the lead school. We were given an exemplary rating by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. To my knowledge, we are the only aviation program to receive that status," he said.
     The program also recently received a National Science Foundation grant to establish an aviation center of excellence for national certification and testing with schools across the nation, Curtis said.
     "The McNeill scholarship is very generous. The $1,000 scholarship will carry a student through a full semester of the program and help him with tools and supplies that he needs," he said.
     Guest presenters included Dr. Michael Saenz, NW Campus president; Capt. Zane Lemon, American Airlines DFW base manager and chief pilot; Curtis and Dr. Leonardo de la Garza, TCC chancellor.
     McNeill, who served as a member of the TCC advisory committee for aviation maintenance technology soon after it began, devoted his entire life to aviation.
     McNeill started his career as a pilot at 18 in Corpus Christi. From 1938-1961 he was a pilot for American Airlines.
     In 1947 he opened the Saginaw Airport and ran a charter, rental and aircraft maintenance business for 37 years. He retired in 1984. In 2002, the airport was purchased and closed for development, but the main road for the area will be named McNeill Boulevard.
     McNeill was a member of the Texas Aviation Association, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, American Airlines Grey Eagles and QB Association Fort Worth Hangar.
     "Our house was 20 yards from the hangar, and every day when I came home from school, I was in the hangar with pilots," Dr. Linda Stegall, McNeill's daughter, said.
     Stegall remembered her father as very particular about how the planes at the airport were maintained. Often, he would not allow pilots to go up until he thought the plane was perfect.
     "We had a brother who was killed in a plane crash when he was about 23 years old and probably because it was not maintained properly. It was always very important for him to make sure any airplane was always top notch and that (attention to detail) sticks with me to this day," she said.