MANAGEMENT IN AVIATION HISTORY BENCH MARKS


ATHLETE, AVIATOR, TEACHER IRIS CUMMINGS CRITCHELL


BY GIACINTA BRADLEY KOONTZ


WITH EACH PASSING YEAR WE LOSE THOSE MEN AND WOMEN WHO SERVED IN WWII. MONUMENTS, STATUES, MUSEUMS, AND HISTORY BOOKS HONOR THEM LEST WE FORGET THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS AND SACRIFICES. I AM FORTUNATE TO HAVE MET MANY WHO SERVED IN THE US MILITARY INCLUDING SOME WHO I KNOW PERSONALLY. AMONG THEM IS IRIS CUMMINGS CRITCHELL, NOW 96 YEARS OLD, AND A REMARKABLE PERSON FOR MANY REASONS IN ADDITION TO HER SERVICE IN THE WOMEN’S AUXILIARY FERRYING SQUADRON (WAFS) LATER TO BE KNOWN AS THE WOMEN AIRFORCE SERVICE PILOTS (WASP).


I met Iris twenty years ago while I was


doing research at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, CA. Iris was then the curator of the school’s Aeronautical Library Special Collections but she was best known on campus for her previous thirty years of teaching in a unique aviation curriculum.


OF WATER AND AIR At an early age Iris (then Iris Cummings) was a competitive swimmer. Between 1936 and 1939 she was the US Champion in the 200 meter breaststroke and was a member of the 1936 US Olympic team at Berlin. Three years later, Iris


Critichell is shown here with a P-38. Photo: Santa Monica Museum of Flying/Collection of Iris Cummings Critchell.


LEFT: As a member of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) Critchell ferried twenty-five types of aircraſt from the assembly plant to Air Bases, including the P-61 Black Widow. Photo: National Museum of the US Air Force


12 DOMmagazine.com | mar 2017


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