By Claudia Loucks
Geneseo Current
The Harold Neumann Project committee along with the Geneseo Historical Museum will host an event on Saturday, Sept. 7, during Geneseo’s Trains, Planes & Automobiles celebration. Activities will be held in the Carriage House, located to the rear of the museum, and on the back lawn of the Geneseo Historical Museum.
At 9 a.m. on Sept. 7, the Geneseo Chamber of Commerce will dedicate the Harold Neumann Mural (at the north side of the Mel Foster building by the train tracks) with a ribbon cutting.
Col. John Morrissey, Kansas, will speak at the Harold Neumann Museum exhibit at 10:30 a.m. The exhibit is in the Carriage House which is located to the rear of the museum.
According to a spokesman on the Harold Neumann Project committee, “Harold was a great influence on John in life as well as in aerobatics. In an article in 1978 in the Sport Aerobatics Get to Know Your Member page, he wrote, ‘I’ll always remember that God may have given me the sky, but it took a gentle man in a white Monocoupe to show me how to enjoy it’.”
At 11:30 a.m., on the lawn connecting the museum and the Carriage House, a question and answer panel has been put together, to include Col. Morrissey, to answer questions about Harold Neumann growing up in Geneseo, and his career in racing, commercial flying and barnstorming.
In information received from the Harold Neumann Project committee states, “During Harold’s flying career of 70 years, he accomplished much more then that farm boy from Geneseo, IL, ever imagined he could. In 1935, Harold Neumann won the Greve Trophy, the Thompson Trophy, along with the award of America’s #1 Pilot by the National Aeronautical association. He is acknowledged in the Smithsonian; he was a barnstormer, skywriter, and a Captain for TWA for 30 years. From Jenny’s to Jets, this man was not just a pilot, he was a genius.”
Paula Neumann Chapa, chairperson of the Harold Neumann Project, said, “Collecting memorabilia of Harold’s from museums and family members across the country has been nothing less than thrilling for us. We have his Greve Trophy and his Thompson Trophies, and they were just the tip of the iceberg. On loan from Special Collections & University Archives, University of Illinois Chicago, we will have the original Eiffel Tower that Harold presented to Mayor Daley after his celebrated flight from Paris to Chicago in 1958. Hours and hours have been spent reading letters, logbooks, and notes of Harold’s, trying to put together the stories of his life with the memorabilia we collected. We want the museum exhibit to be educational as well as informative.”
From 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. on Sept. 7 on the lawn of the museum, there will be activities and games for all ages to include plane ball pit, make your own balsa wood airplane, rubber duck matching game, make and race paper airplanes, photo booths and more. Those planning to attend area asked to take their own lawn chairs.
