Voices of the
BIG BEND
Jim Glendinning continues the tradition of his popular radio interviews from “Voices of the Big Bend,” an original production of
KRTS, Marfa Public Radio. The program continues to be broadcast occasionally throughout the region at 93.5 FM.
by Jim Glendinning
G
eorge Vose was born on May 3,
1922 in Machias, Maine. His
father, John Pierce Vose, was a
subsistence farmer. His mother, Rebecca
Parlin Vose, bore two children. The
elder, Irene, lives today in Florida and
keeps in touch with George by e-mail.
George attended elementary and
high school in Machias. This was the
time of Lindbergh’s landmark transat-
lantic flight (1927), and someone gave
George a metal model of the Spirit of
St. Louis. Fascinated by flying, he would
run out of the house if he heard a plane
flying overhead. He took his first flight in
1937. In 1939 he graduated from high
school and got a job in the local hospital
in the X-ray department.
This early hospital experience
enabled him to get a job in 1940 at Penn
State University as a lab technician. He
is proud of his work there in the field of
bone density and of the 27 years that fol-
lowed at Texas Woman’s University.
More vital to his future was that his
earnings enabled him to learn to fly. He
scraped up enough money to pay for
160 hours of instruction – at 35 cents an
hour – to obtain an instructor’s certifi-
cate.
George instructed flight cadets from
1943-45, first at Wichita Falls and then
as a gunnery instructor in California. He
returned briefly to Penn State and grad-
uated in 1951. Then he continued his
studies in bone metabolism at Texas
Woman’s University of Denton from
1951 to 1976, but only until 4 p.m. each
day. After that was flying time.
His second job, and passion, was fly-
ing. At Hartlee Field in Denton, he test-
ed 2,500 students, for both private and
commercial flying. In 1976, he moved to
Alpine, where the weather was excellent
and the skies empty. Over the years, he
16
Photo by Dallas Baxter
Photo by Jim Glendinning
GEORGE VOSE
Terlingua
has flown an astonishing 24,000 hours,
all in propeller planes.
Asked about what you need to go fly-
ing, he answers, “You need a compass, a
map and a pencil.” He has taught
around 40 local students, by whom his
style is described as “hands-off.” He
divides his time between Alpine and his
second home, an airpark 60 miles south
at Tauras Mesa where he has sold tracts
to other pilots.
George’s honors are as varied as his
recollections of curious, comic and trag-
ic flying events. He has been honored by
the FAA as a master pilot and is a mem-
ber of the Alaska Pilots Association, of
United Flying Octogenarians and of
OX5 (Aviation Pioneers).
In addition to instructing, he has had
many contracts with agencies and Sul
Cenizo
Second Quarter 2011
LANNA DUNCAN
Fort Davis
Ross State University doing aerial track-
ing of wildlife. He gained recognition as
the pilot in Alan Tennant’s bestselling
book On the Wing, an account of a proj-
ect in 2005 to follow migrating pere-
grine falcons. “We were the odd cou-
ple,” says George, dealing lightly with
the challenges of an interpersonal rela-
tionship. Courteous and quiet in
demeanor, with occasional dry humor,
George Vose, who never married, is a
rare bird indeed – an old-fashioned pio-
neer of the skies.
L
anna Tweedy was born on Jan. 28,
1956 in Ligonier, Penn. Growing
up, the middle one of five daugh-
ters, in a nourishing pastoral environ-
ment of creeks and fields, Lanna also
experienced home discipline at the din-
Photo courtesy Sul Ross State University
LEO DOMINGUEZ
Alpine
ner table. Her father, Malcolm Tweedy,
was a diligent teacher and insisted on
intelligent conversation at dinner. Her
mother, Sally Marie Godfrey, ran the
home, keeping an eye on Lanna and her
sisters Laura, Leslie, Lucinda and
Mynetta.
Lanna graduated from Ligonier
High School in 1974 with history and
art her strong interests. She continued at
Penn State University, graduating in
1979 with a B.A. in education. After
graduation, her first professional job was
teaching special-needs children in
Odessa for five years. She then taught
special education at the Lewisville
(Texas) Middle School.
In 1988, she received a master’s
degree in counseling and student servic-
es from North Texas State University in