Honoree – Roy Morgan

Raymond L “Roy” Morgan

Honored 2014

Raymond “Roy” L Morgan was born in Monte Vista, Colorado on September 16, 1935. Roy graduated from Sterling High School in 1955. After graduation he worked in the oil fields in Wyoming and started flying lessons. He soloed on July 17, 1955 at Torrington, Wyoming.

Roy moved to Wichita, Kansas where he worked for Boeing, then for General Dynamics as Quality Assurance Inspector on the Atlas missile system. With the end of the Atlas program Roy was laid off. He found a job with Key Aviation in Salt Lake City as a flight instructor. While at Key Aviation, he gained his airline transport pilot (ATP), multiengine land, airplane commercial instrument, single-engine land and sea, commercial glider, commercial and instrument helicopter certificates and ratings plus gold seal flight instructor certificates. With a helicopter rating, Roy flew for the Public Service Company of Colorado in 1969.

After an emergency medical flight that Roy piloted in Utah in 1967, he determined that flying a first-class medical team in the best equipped aircraft was what he wanted to do. Morgan understood the life-saving benefits that could come from the transport of injured or ill patients directly to a hospital emergency room by helicopter. He started his own company, Air Methods, in 1980, with one helicopter flying patients to St. Mary’s Hospital in Grand Junction, Colorado. Air Methods was the first hospital-based medical helicopter program in the United States to be FAA 135 IFR certified. Air Methods transports patients requiring intensive medical care from either the scene of an accident or general care hospitals, to trauma centers or tertiary care centers. Their employees provide medical care to patients enroute. Morgan’s priorities were always safety and quality patient care. The success of this first effort led to expansion to Greeley and Denver, Colorado. Today, Air Methods has over 4,500 employees, over 400 helicopters based in 44 states, and has flown over two million patients.

Roy Morgan has logged an impressive 19,277 hours of flight time, including 7,125 hours in airplanes, 12,060 hours in helicopters, and 92 hours in gliders. In 2013, Morgan was inducted into the Vertical Flight Hall of Fame. In 2014, he received the Living Legends of Aviation Award.