It’s often said adversity builds character, and as Bob Wyzenbeek of Watch Lake nears his 90th birthday, he reflects on how it helped to shape his life.
Bob was born on Sept. 2, 1921 and grew up in the notoriously rough neighbourhood of Watts in Los Angeles, California.
The predominantly black community was renowned for its gang activity and violence, and every day presented the possibility of getting hurt or killed for merely walking the streets.
Bob says he lost one of his close childhood friends in a random attack, and the unthinkable incident accelerated his growing instincts for self-reliance and survival.
He developed an early fascination with aircraft and flying, and at the age of about 14, managed to earn enough money cutting lawns to pay for flying lessons. He bought an old mower for $1 and would push it three or four kilometres to a better neighbourhood to do yard work for 50 cents.
With each $6 that he saved, Bob was able to buy a half-hour lesson in an open cockpit plane, but it was something he knew would not sit well with his parents, so he kept it a secret.
His mom fainted when he finally detailed his first solo flight with just 6 1/2 hours of instruction, where he was only able to land the plane after several frightening attempts.
Through their many father-and-son discussions, Bob’s dad taught him the only road to a better life was through education, so Bob went on to university to study aeronautical engineering.
It was there he met his future wife, Marion, but their first encounter was more embarrassing than enamoring.
As part of a hazing ritual for a campus club, Bob was dressed in ridiculous clothing, and with his face painted, was sent to propose to a beautiful girl who was sitting on a nearby bench. The two somehow avoided each other until the following year when Bob bumped into her again on campus, and something clicked.
Daily brown-bag lunches and walking together to the bus sufficed over more expensive dating, and the day Marion pulled him behind the bus sign and gave him a kiss, he knew she would be his wife.
“From then, on, I was madly in love with her for every day of my life.”
He was drafted to the navy in January 1942 and was accepted to navy flight school. After completion, he returned home to find that Marion had moved to San Francisco and was engaged to marry a wealthy man.
In a panic, he sought her out and after five days together, Bob had Marion’s promise to marry him instead. They were wed on Feb. 12, 1943, with a ring he bought with no more than a promise to pay the jeweler when he was able.
When he was 21, he went on to pilot planes in the Second World War as a Navy Lieutenant Commander, operating out of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Flying a patrol bomber Martin 3S, Bob says he was responsible for sinking many German submarines during the war, and during his service, earned great respect as a pilot and a leader, despite his young age. He was later inducted to the Museum of Flight Hall of Honor in Seattle, Washington.
After the war, Bob says he flew commercial planes for Pan American Airlines where his ever-growing self-assuredness and belief in his own inner strength bailed him out of many near disasters. In 1948, when co-piloting a Boeing 377 Strata Cruiser from London, Heathrow, electrical control of a prop was lost around 1.5 hours into the flight. The prop rotated at such a rate that it shook the plane violently and caused the casing around the engine to deform.
Loss of a wing was a real possibility, says Bob, and frustrated with the pilot’s inaction, he took command of the controls. Against the pilot’s wishes, he cut power to the engines abruptly, causing the plane to jerk and throw the out-of-control propeller from the plane. It calmed the aircraft and Bob, who continued to maintain the controls, headed the plane back to Heathrow and landed it safely.
He says actor Danny Kaye was a passenger on the plane, and the first one out the door.
“There were emergency vehicles and reporters all around when we landed and he got off and kissed the ground on his hands and knees. I knew that I was going to bring those passengers home and I got through it.”
Bob says he can count at least 15 very close calls he had as a pilot, but none of the stories were ever shared with Marion.
“No matter how bad things were, I didn’t want to worry her. My job was to earn a living.”
The gutsy pilot says that he’s flown 57 different planes throughout the course of his life, but flying was not his greatest success.
“It was a means to an end, and it conditioned me quite a bit.”
The real fun began when Boeing offered him a job as director of sales.
“That opened doors to airlines all over the world and I never had to look for a job again.”
Continental Airlines lured him away next, to take the position of vice-president of corporate planning and aircraft sales. He later moved up to vice-president of assets management for Continental and stayed with the company until 1980, when the airline ran into financial difficulties and fell prey to a takeover by American businessman Frank Lorenzo.
He then consulted for Federal Express until 1981 until he decided to stop and smell the roses.
He and Marion had purchased property on Watch Lake in the 1960s and built a house that until that time, had served as his weekend refuge. On Friday afternoons, he’d leave his office in Los Angeles and catch a jet to where his own private plane was kept. From there, he flew to Watch Lake, landing on the water and arriving home in time for dinner.
“Coming home to the lake was so refreshing and it really enabled me to handle the pressures. I’ve been all over the world, but this is paradise.”
He has led a remarkable life and owes it to a long list of outstanding personal qualities for which seeds were planted long ago in his old neighbourhood of Watts.
“I climbed out of that ghetto I was in, and after that, I figured I could just do anything.”
Bob will be celebrating his extraordinary 90 years with cake and coffee on Sept. 2 at the Watch Lake Community Hall. All of the many friends and acquaintances he has made over the years are invited to drop by any time between 3 and 9 p.m. for a visit and to help him celebrate and reminisce.
