This week is the 42nd anniversary of the death of C. E. Woolman, Delta’s principal founder. When he passed on September 11, 1966, he was Delta’s CEO and had managed the company for over forty years. He was very down-to-earth, thrifty, hard-working, charismatic and known for his great quotes. When asked about getting starting Delta, he said one of my favorite quotes: “Running an airline is like having a baby: fun to conceive, but hell to deliver.”
Woolman is shown here on the cover of Delta’s employee magazine the Delta Digest in January 1946, at his desk, holding a Douglas DC-4 model, shortly after promotion from general manager to president.
To learn more about C. E. Woolman, one of aviation’s pioneers and a Delta legend, see his biography at the Delta Air Transport Heritage Museum’s website.
Marie Force
Archives Manager
September 11th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
He said “Quality begins with people.” and for the past year or so that I have been flying delta for 90% of my flights I have to say that Delta has a lot of quality people. I had 2 bad experiences with delta employees but the good experiences make up for them.
September 11th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
The planes and the bees…
Marie Force, the archives manager at Delta Air Lines, posts fascinating historical items at Delta’s blog Under the Wing. Today she notes the anniversary of the death of one of Delta’s founders, C. E. Woolman, who had a quotation worth shari…