By Stephen Smoot
In the 1960s as Dr. Brad Gilbert enjoyed a suburban Chicago childhood, commercial aviation remained something Americans still considered bright, shiny, and new. Passenger planes had only started serving travelers a few decades prior.
After World War II airlines with appealingly dramatic names like Pan American or Trans World Airlines offered gateways to exotic lands, locations, and lifestyles, often with an imagined soundtrack by Frank Sinatra. Travelers sipped cocktails while wearing professional or dinner dress as they jetted across the nation or around the world.
Kids, obviously, felt the biggest thrills as they heard the powerful engines fire up, watching airplanes hurtle down a runway, then gracefully take flight, taking passengers to Poland, Paducah, Peru, or potentially pretty much anywhere with an airport. Airplane flight also attracted thrill seekers who loved parachuting and aerial circuses.
Gilbert grew up in the time when airplanes still held mystery and drove kids’ imaginations. He remembered “when we were kids, he used to take us down to the local airport.” Dad and his four children then enjoyed a picnic lunch as they watched the planes take off and land all afternoon.
“Today, it’s more commonplace,” he noted, “less exciting.”
While most have lost their marvel at the magic of flying, North Central West Virginia could not be more excited about the aviation industry and what its growth continues to bring the region and its people. As Director of Aviation Programs at Pierpont Community and Technical College, Dr. Gilbert has a hand in shaping that excitement and anticipation of what will come next.
Dr. Gilbert’s background gives him broad experience in how different fields in aviation can benefit those looking for good paying jobs and careers. He grew up in a Chicago suburb whose economy revolved around factory work. “The technical aspect was all around me at that time,” he stated, adding that people from his neighborhood went to college, joined the military, or went to the factories for employment.
“I leaned toward the hands-on aspect,” he shared. That said, he decided that he did not want to work on an assembly line for 40 or more years and focused his vision for the future.
As Dr. Gilbert progressed in his work and learned more, it stoked fires of ambition in him. Never having lost his early love of aviation, he for a time considered becoming a pilot.
Every staircase offers the climber a series of steps. The first taken by Dr. Gilbert came at his local airport when he obtained a job as a ground service fueler. He then earned himself an associates degree at Southern Illinois.
Almost nobody gets the job they truly want the first time out. Almost everyone works their way through their individual series of steps until reaching their destination – sometimes a different one than originally intended, however.
Dr. Gilbert continued knocking on doors of opportunity. The next one that opened led him to Eastern Airlines in Miami, Florida. The company even had a program where families of employees who had extra rooms would rent space to new hires. “I had a Mustang, too. I put everything I had in the backseat. Didn’t know a soul there.”
Sometimes one must take a leap of faith in the work world as they do in other fields of endeavor.
He did rent a room from a kindly family who continued to allow him to stay even after he got laid off. Over time, Dr. Gilbert continued to take the kinds of work and educational opportunities that would continue to push him forward, step by step.
He earned his bachelors, then his masters, and accepted positions with Continental, then United Airlines. By 1992, Dr. Gilbert got bitten by the teaching bug and put in applications with Purdue University and Fairmont State University.
“I interviewed at Purdue, then came down here.” he shared. He then added that when he came for the Fairmont State interview, the academic who spoke with him at Purdue had already called and given a glowing recommendation. “I’ve been here ever since.”
He was then a man in charge of a program still in its infancy. It occupied the basement of a building on campus and had little established that would make it effective. Dr. Gilbert set to work. Right away, the team set to work to develop program pieces required by the Federal Aviation Administration, then working to get the program its own space.
“It was the foresight of people like Senator Robert C. Byrd, Congressman Alan Mollohan, and several other political people.” Dr. Gilbert credited their vision in seeing a bright future for North Central West Virginia, as well as specific growth centers, such as the West Virginia Route 279 corridor.
When they built it, students came. Dr. Gilbert noted that the program started with between 10 and 12 students, where now 130 are studying within it.
“What brings me a lot of joy,” Dr. Gilbert explained, “is when I see alumni, past graduates, with their spouses and children.”
Part of the popularity of the program comes from the opportunities to which it leads. Harrison County educational and economic experts forecast that, for the foreseeable future, the area aviation industry will need as many skilled workers as it can recruit. Dr. Gilbert adds that many of the hands-on skills taught in the aviation program translate to a number of other high-paying fields.
“Those are adaptable and many touch on other fields,” Dr. Gilbert explained. He went on to add that the spring job fair. At the program’s spring job fair, companies from oil and gas and other energy sectors came to recruit soon-to-be graduates and others.
Graduates have gone on to major roles in companies like Mitsubishi Heavy Equipment, Pratt and Whitney, Aurora Flight Scientists, and other respected outfits. Even more important is that, as Dr. Gilbert states, “we’re like family.” He spoke of Annette Shaw, who has supported the program with her work for three decades. Several current students’ parents went through the program before them, demonstrating the development of multi generational roots in the program and the industry.
“The faculty and staff that I work with have been here a long time,” shared Dr. Gilbert, who described the warm and supportive environment for all. “It’s uplifting to work in that environment,” he added.
