Robert Campbell Reeve

In 1946, Reeve formed Reeve Aleutian Airways and was its president until his death in 1980. He allowed his pilot's license to lapse in 1948 after he caught himself missing an item on a checklist. Reeve was invited to run for territorial governor of Alaska in 1952, but decided against this due to a conflict of interests. Reeve received an honorary doctor of science degree at the University of Alaska in 1963. Reeve was named "Alaskan of the Year" in 1972 and inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1975. He was made honorary mayor of Shemya in 1978. He died on August 25, 1980, and in that year was inducted into the International Aerospace Hall of Fame. The Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum inducted Reeve into the Alaska Aviation Pioneer Hall of Fame on February 25, 2005. The Bob Reeve High School in Adak, Alaska was named after him.

In 1980, Reeve was inducted into the International Air & Space Hall of Fame at the San Diego Air & Space Museum.

Reeve flew back to Juneau unannounced, and was almost shot down because he didn't identify himself. He returned to working for the CAA, now earning $80 an hour with fuel supplied flying supplies, materials and workers to the new airfields being constructed at Big Delta, Tanacross, Galena, Moses Point and Nome, doing all the flying and maintenance himself and regularly working 15-hour days. In November 1942 Reeve signed a contract with the Alaska Communications System (ACS) and moved his family to Anchorage. The contract with ACS involved flying all over Alaska, the Aleutians and western Canada. On July 5, 1943, Reeve was flying radar equipment and four technicians from Cold Bay to Amchitka when he ran into zero-zero visibility conditions. During 1942 Reeve purchased a Fairchild FC-2W-2. A forced landing was made 20 miles east of Cold Bay. Reeve managed to salvage his radio, but the uninsured plane was written off. The delay in the delivery of the radar parts allowed the Japanese to evacuate Kiska undetected, which may have saved American lives, as when US forces landed on Kiska they found it deserted. Previously the Battle of Attu had cost 500 lives.

Reeve arrived in Fairbanks and had to borrow $65 to pay his first month's rent. Noel Wien gave Reeve his first charter, and a lifelong friendship was formed. In April 1941, Reeve was one of a few pilots in Alaska without a certified route, and was hired by the CAA to survey the many new airfields planned to be built as part of Hap Arnold's master plan for Alaska's defense. While the Army and Navy concentrated on building bases at Anchorage and in the Aleutian Islands, the CAA was responsible for constructing the airfields in the interior.

The day after the Washburn trip, the engine of the Fairchild 51 quit. Reeve spent eight months repairing the Wright Whirlwind engine, but never put it back in the aircraft. He was now back to only one. Reeve made his last glacier landing in 1938, when he flew Brad Washburn to the Mount Marcus Glacier. His brother Richard was killed in a plane crash in 1938 and in the spring of 1939 a storm overturned the Fairchild 71. He spent all summer repairing it, only for the hangar to burn down with the aircraft inside. Reeve bought another Fairchild 71 and spent a further month repairing it. At this time, the CAA came in to regulate flying in Alaska. Pilots were assigned routes under a "grandfather rights" scheme based on the territory they had served for four months prior to August 22, 1938. Reeve was given a small area around Copper River. The work available would not support a growing family (at this time they had two children, Richard and Roberta) so they left Valdez in January 1941 for Fairbanks.

Reeve received a letter from Bradford Washburn in January 1937 asking if he could fly a party of climbers to the glacier at the base of Mount Lucania in Canada. Reeve agreed to undertake the task. In April, the bulk of the supplies were flown in. When he flew Washburn and Robert Bates to the site, the weather had turned unseasonably warm and the plane sank up to its belly in slush. It was over a week before Reeve could take off, after the temperature had dropped sufficiently for a crust of ice to form over the slush. The trip was described by Reeve as the "most hazardous" of his career, but he had set a new world record of 8,750 feet (2,670 m) for the highest landing on skis, more than 1,800 feet (550 m) higher than any in either the Arctic or Antarctic.

Reeve tried his hand at mining, and joined with prospector Andy Thompson to prospect the Ruff & Tuff Mine. He went to Canada in 1936 to try placer mining to finance the Ruff & Tuff. The mining didn't pay, so Reeve returned to Valdez flying supplies. He earned enough money to buy basic equipment for the Ruff & Tuff and later he and Thompson sold the mine, with Reeve getting the contract to supply it. Morisette had returned to San Francisco in the meantime, but she returned in April 1936. Reeve decided that despite his sporadic income, he would marry Morisette and so they were married in Fairbanks. Reeve bought another plane, a Fairchild 71, to celebrate.

Reeve's success with supplying the Big Four Mine let to further contracts with other mines; the Mayfield, Little Giant and Ramsay Rutherford. During this time, Reeve learned more about assessing suitability of landing sites from the air, and developed the technique of dropping supplies by air. Miners being so keen on getting their supplies that they would pay for another load if supplies were damaged when dropped. In 1934, the price of gold almost doubled under the New Deal Gold Reserve Act and Valdez boomed. In the summer of 1934, Reeve's exploits, including landing on mudflats (having manufactured skis from stainless steel to fit to his aircraft) regularly reached the papers. He received some fan letters, including one from Miss Janice Morisette, who asked if he needed an extra hand. Janice lived about 30 miles from Reeve's hometown. They corresponded for a few months and Janice flew to Valdez in June 1935. Reeve left on a prospecting trip to Canada, but his curiosity got the better of him and he returned within a month. When he first saw her she reminded him of "Tilly the Toiler" and thus the nickname stuck.

In March 1933, Reeve took an order into Chisana. On the way back to Valdez his engine quit and he made a forced landing by Mount Wrangell. He and his passenger used snowshoes to walk the 20 miles (32 km) to the Nabesna Mine, where owner Carl Whitham assisted them. They returned to Valdez for help, got the spare parts to repair the engine and flew back to the plane, where the three men repaired the engine, using a tree to hoist it clear of the aircraft.

Reeve headed to Florida, then to Beaumont, Texas where he joined a pair of barnstormers—"Hazard" and "Maverick". In exchange for two months' work at the airfield, Reeve got three hours flying instruction (which was called five) and soloed. When the Air Commerce Act of 1926 came into force, he got one of the first Engine and Aircraft Mechanic's Licenses and his Commercial Pilot's License. Reeve joined the Army Air Corps at March Field, but was discharged after a short time.

Reeve finished high school, and then entered the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1922, his brother already being there. A picture of the aviator Carl Ben Eielson was on the wall at the fraternity house, this inspired Reeve, George Gardner, Monk MacKinnon and Ora McMurray to skip classes to spend time at Madison airfield, where Cash Chamberlain had a Curtiss Jenny. Six months short of graduation, all four were expelled from the university. This pushed them further into aviation, with Gardner and MacKinnon becoming President and Vice-President respectively of Northwest Airlines.

By the late 1920s, barnstorming wasn't a viable way to make a living. Pan Am teamed up with W. R. Grace and Company to bid for an airmail contract in South America. The new airline, Pan American-Grace Airways (Panagra) flew weekly airmail from the US to Lima, Peru via the Canal Zone. A Ford Trimotor was purchased and Reeve trained with the Ford Motor Company on these aircraft, delivering the first to Lima in August 1929. Panagra offered Reeve the chance to fly Airmail Route 9 from Lima to Santiago, Chile, at this time the longest aviation route in the world at 1,900 miles (3,100 km). In 1930 the route was extended to Montevideo, Uruguay. It was during this time that Reeve learned about bush flying, developing techniques to avoid coastal fog, which later served him in Alaska, and mountain flying skills. He established a speed record between Santiago and Lima, covering the 1,900 miles in 20 hours. In January 1932, he crashed a Lockheed Vega of Panagra at Santiago, and quit before he was fired.

Robert Campbell Reeve (March 27, 1902 – August 25, 1980) was an American pilot, who was the founder of Reeve Aleutian Airways. He was the Republican nominee for the 1952 House election against incumbent Bob Bartlett.

Reeve was born in Waunakee, Wisconsin, on March 27, 1902. He was one of twins, his brother was Richard. Their parents were Hubert and Mae Reeve. Mae died in 1904, and their father remarried, leaving the boys to fend for themselves. Bob and Richard went their separate ways early in life. Reeve was fascinated by aviation from an early age, and studied all he could on the subject. He enlisted in the US Army aged 15 in 1917. Discharged from the Army at the end of the war, Reeve had reached the rank of sergeant. He wanted to re-enlist, but his father was against this so Reeve returned to school, but dropped out after a few months and went to San Francisco. From there he got passage as an ordinary seaman to Shanghai, where he took a job in the Chinese Maritime Customs Service, serving on the Yangtze and Taku rivers. In 1921, Reeve was working in Vladivostok, USSR, but returned home as a result of his father's pleading.

Reeve's move to Alaska came as the result of unrelated incidents. He had met a Klondike prospector, "Swiftwater Bill" Gates, in Chile, who had told him of the Gold Rush thirty years earlier. He had also talked to Eddie Craig, a mining engineer at the Kennicott Copper Mine in Alaska in the early 1900s. These stories, and the idea that there was new country to conquer pulled Reeve north. He returned home to Wisconsin, where he suffered a slight attack of polio, which affected one of his legs slightly.