THE INTERVIEW: REMEMBERING PAN AM: KATHLEEN CLAIR!

The Majestic Boeing 707-121 launched the "Jet Age"!
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Kathleen Clair was Juan Trippe's personal secretary for 32 years; from Pan Am's Flying Boast days well into the "Jet Age". Described by the late Betty Trippe, Juan's wife as "one of the most important members of the team" who "executed innumerable tasks with outstanding ability---always with a fair sense of esprit de corps--and was of inestimable assistance to him", Clair at 87 is herself a "Living Legend".

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MM: What are your fondest recollections of Juan Trippe?

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CLAIR: Number one, he never took 'no' for an answer. Even if it took him twenty-five years. If the government turned him down, he'd just turn around and take a different tack and do it another way. And his integrity! Especially compared to today. He was a great patriot. A lot of people don't know that because he was very quiet about what he did. The government often called on him for jobs that they couldn't do politically. And he always did them immediately better than they ever dreamed could have been done. For one, it was the Africa service during World War II when Churchill and Roosevelt asked him to establish a route--this was all secret at the time--across the South Atlantic and across Africa to get supplies to Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery in the desert in Egypt. They gave him ninety days and he did it in sixty. Of course, we also did a lot of evacuations of American citizens out of Tehran, Pakistan and God knows where.

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Trippe started our Inter-Continental Hotels company at President Roosevelt's request because it was his 'Good neighbor Policy' at the time, and he wanted hotels in Latin America, so that when people went by air they had some place to stay.

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One of the most exciting stories---I think---is from 1940. There was a German controlled airline in Columbia called SCADTA (Sociedad Columbo-Alemana de Transportes Aeros). The government got a little nervous that they were too near the Panama Canal. So, they came to Trippe because they didn't want to get involved. We weren't in the war yet. Trippe trained an entire staff here in New York secretly and on the appointed day, he sent them down to Columbia in a (Boeing 307) Stratoliner, to look like tourists on their first flight. While (it was) in the air, all of the employees were called into a hangar--they were all German employees---(and) told that they were fired, that they got their severance pay and were sent back to Germany. And they weren't even allowed to go back to their desks. They were immediately sent to Germany. They had Army stationed at all the airports. Our plane landed. The new staff took over and Pan Am never missed a flight.

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MM: Very efficient!

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CLAIR: Efficient, yes. Everyday Trippe was doing something. The big thing of course was ordering the jets (on October 15, 1955). He and Bill Allen of Boeing, they each bet the existence of the company on the success of the deal. And Trippe went ahead. He couldn't get the manufacturers to make a jet. So, he ordered the engines before he even had an airplane to hang them on! And even Pratt & Whitney---it was torturous what he had to go through to get them to make the engines. And he and Bill Allen just shook hands on the deal because they trusted each other. Businessmen were different then.

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I'm certainly glad (Trippe) didn't see the bankruptcy (in 1991). He didn't live to see that. He saw the National buyout though (on January 8, 1980).

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The Author is greatly indebted to Kathleen Clair for her time and consideration in sitting down with me for this conversation.