Insights Spring/Summer 2013 - Saint Martin's University

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Gladys Dawson Buroker TRAILBLAZING by Deanna Partlow 14 | www.stmartin.edu
“May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view,” wrote environmentalist Edward Paul Abbey. It is those individuals who navigate the most challenging trails — the pathfinders who venture through uncharted and uncertain terrain — who often remake their world. When Saint Martin’s carved its first trails, those involved overcame many obstacles to establish the young institution and help it thrive. Over the years, the trails deepened with frequent use, although sometimes a visionary soul would step off the path to chart a new course. Among those visionaries were several trailblazing women who helped remake the landscape of Saint Martin’s history. Here are some of their stories. Ahead of her time Gladys Dawson Buroker The life of Gladys Dawson Buroker reads like an adventure novel. As a Depression-era teenager in Bellingham, she yearned to fly. Scraping together enough money for 15 minutes’ worth of flying lessons at a time, she learned to navigate the skies from World War I pilot Herb Buroker. In 1931, the 17-year-old soloed. For a time, Gladys parachuted with a barnstorming troop, she wrote in her 1997 book, Wind in My Face: Autobiography of Gladys Dawson Buroker, Pioneer Pilot. In 1937, she and Herb married. With Olympia airport manager Gwin Hicks, they gave flying lessons through their business, Buroker-Hicks Flying Service. At the time, Gladys was the only female flight instructor in the Northwest. Her history crossed paths with that of Saint Martin’s College when the federal Civil Aeronautics Act passed in 1938. Anxious about a potential military conflict and the country’s considerable pilot shortage, Congress passed the act to set up a trial civilian pilot training program. The initial program gave equal access to young men and women nationwide. Although Saint Martin’s was an all-male institution then, it was among those chosen to help train student-pilots, wrote Father John Scott, O.S.B., in his history, This Place Called Saint Martin’s. Aviation ground school classes began on campus in summer 1939, taught by the Burokers and Hicks. Gladys became the first female instructor at Saint Martin’s, and several young women enrolled in the ground school program. Many ground school grads next took pilot training, which was taught by Herb Buroker and pilot Jack Mifflin at the airport. As war loomed, officials expanded the program but dropped women from it, anticipating that its graduates would be funneled into the all-male military. Gladys continued ground school classes at the College, Scott recounted. With the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the entire Saint Martin’s pilot training operation — instructors, students, planes and equipment — was shifted INSIGHTS SPRING/SUMMER 2013 | 15
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Page 7 and 8: Many new graduates breathe a sigh o
Page 9 and 10: y Meg Nugent Dwyer Tweets and retwe
Page 11 and 12: @SMUNEWS "The Boss" @BrookeSMU @Ste
Page 13: The president says Twitter is a med
Page 17 and 18: She recalled him saying, “Hiring
Page 19 and 20: Cady first retired from Saint Marti
Page 21 and 22: Mustafa Zaaid, Master of Engineerin
Page 23 and 24: Massud, 31, is finishing his first
Page 25 and 26: #SAINTSALIVE Our 2013 season began
Page 27 and 28: I attended the national American Ch
Page 29 and 30: She also found professors who inspi
Page 31 and 32: Former Benedictine pastors of St. C
Page 33 and 34: February 8-10: Saints come home Hom
Page 35 and 36: April 23: Scholars Day and Honors C
Page 37 and 38: Faculty updates Amanie Abdelmessih,
Page 39 and 40: Jamie Olson, Ph.D., assistant profe
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Page 49 and 50: 2 3 4 2 Lindsay Ford ’06 married
Page 51 and 52: Alum News Saints come home{ In Febr
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Insights Spring/Summer 2013 - Saint Martin's University

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