Honored 1974
Donna Myers was born in Evans, Colorado on March 22, 1915. She enrolled in the Colorado University aviation ground school in 1935 to become a pilot. Her first license was dated June 28, 1937, which makes her one of the very earliest licensed women pilots in Colorado. Donna gained ratings as a pilot for both single and multi-engine aircraft.
In 1937, Colorado women pilots joined together to form the Wings Club, with Donna as President. She also organized the University of Colorado Flying Club as an aviation promotion and study group.
In 1939, she joined Ray Wilson’s flying school, which had begun one of the first Civilian Pilot Training (CPT) programs, organized to prepare aviators to serve in the military. Donna played a prominent role in establishing this program and her jobs included ferrying new Piper Cubs from the Lock Haven, Pennsylvania factory to Denver.
When Ray Wilson began Monarch Air Lines in 1946, Donna became Secretary of the Board, a position she also held when Frontier Air Lines was formed in 1950.
She became very active in the “99s” (international organization of women pilots) which was founded by Amelia Earhart and a group of women pilots (originally 99 members), and helped organize the Colorado chapter. She was the national secretary of the organization in 1951 and national president from 1967 to 1969.
Donna and her husband John Myers were part of the original group which was formed to create a local aircraft museum on the site of Lowry Air Force Base. This came to fruition in 1994 with the opening of “Wings Over the Rockies” Air & Space Museum.
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