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mander, U.S. Naval Reserve.  In 1959, when he was sixty-four years old, he was invited to fly with the Blue Angels, the Navy drill team.
   Russell Holderman continued to fly until 1974 when he had a pacemaker installed during a heart operation.  During that same year he received an honorary degree from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida.  There is a building at the school named after him.  He was a recipient of the Civil Aviation Administration No. I Honor Award and elected to the OX 5 Club of America Aviation Hall of Fame.  He was President of the Early Birds, 1958-59.
   On Memorial Day, May 25, 1981, Russell Holderman died at the age of eighty-six.  He was survived by his wife, Dot, who had been ill for several years.  This man, "nutty about aviation" for almost all of his life, experience the joy of wonder and accomplishment beginning with that homemade glider and climaxing in a jet flight with the Blue Angels.  He saw his boyhood dreams come true.

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Transcription Notes:
I included the double-spaces at the beginning of the sentences, to keep the integrity of the original.