
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, April 13, 1990                   TAG: 9004130951
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B2   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: BLACKSTONE                                LENGTH: Short

EX-AERONAUTICS CHIEF, ALLAN PERKINSON, DIES

Allan C. Perkinson, Virginia's first director of aeronautics, is dead at the age of 98.

Perkinson, who died Wednesday, is credited with setting up the state's present system of commercial and general aviation airports.

He served as director of the state division of aeronautics from the early 1940s until his retirement in 1963.

In 1941 he organized and led the state's Civil Air Patrol, heading the CAP for 27 years even though he wasn't a pilot. He once said he had given up learning to fly because he "didn't know a thing in the world about mechanics."

He also guided the construction of airports at New Market, Gordonsville, Williamsburg, Warrenton and Bedford.

by CNB