Kenneth Robert Newstrom

Kenneth R. Newstrom Born in Chicago Illinois on October 19, 1935 To Ken and Evy Newstrom Ken attended grade school and high schools in the Northwest suburbs of Chicago, and Graduated from the University of Illinois Institute of Aviation in 1955. Ken became an F.A.A. Licensed Commercial Flight Instructor: Instrument Rated for both Single-Engine Land and Single-Engine Sea. He was also an F.A.A. Licensed Airframe and Power-Plant mechanic. Ken became a flight instructor at the University of Illinois from 1955-58 and became a Pre-flight inspector and mechanic for Midway Airlines in Chicago in 1956, and in 1959 he received a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois. He then became a Seaplane charter pilot and flight instructor at Mesaba Aviation in Grand Rapids, MN from 59-60, until he served in the Army from 1960-63 in the U.S. and Europe: 1 Lt. Medical Service Corp. Battalion Medical Officer 1st Howitzer Battalion, 83rd Artillery. While in Germany, he met and married his wife Gerda, who was a translator for the military. In 1963, on his return from Europe, Ken joined the Ohio State University Department of Aviation where he served as a flight instructor and manager of Airport Services - and in ’66 he became Director of the Ohio State University Airport until 1983 - when he also became an Adjunct Professor in Aviation Management. In July 1994, he became Director of Aviation, which included duties as Director of Flight Education and Aviation Management curriculum in addition to his Airport Director duties. Ken served in those capacities, until his retirement at the end of Dec. 1998 when he was appointed Executive Director/Secretary Treasurer of the Great Lakes Chapter of the American Association of Airport Executives (AAAE). As a charter member of the Chapter, Ken had served as an Officer and/or Executive Committee Member of the Great Lakes Chapter AAAE since its formation in 1968. He had served as Secretary Treasurer of the Chapter since 1972 - also in association with his airport duties. Ken stepped down from the Executive Director position of the Chapter in September 2019 after 51 years of service and acted as a paid consultant to the Chapter through March 2020. During all of this, he also served as President of the Dublin Worthington Ohio Rotary Club from 1997-98, where he’d been a Member since 1985, and somehow found the time to raise two boys: Kane James and Robert Jeffrey, with his beloved wife of 62 years, Gerda.

Kenneth Robert Newstrom

October 19, 1935 - June 21, 2025