FROM THE READER
Garry Hojan of JH Aero
You never know where the spark for the love of aviation may come from. For me, it was my father, which is not an uncommon story, but my dad was a chef, and he didn’ t take me up flying or even show me airplanes to start my journey.
I was born in Toronto, Canada, and when I was four, our family moved to Jamaica. My uncle had asked my dad to be the chef at a hotel he was building. When I was seven, we lost my dad in a boating accident, and my mother, brother, and I moved back to Canada. It was tough for my mom. Dad had no insurance, so she didn’ t receive anything from his work at the hotel except airfare and a check for about $ 2500 as a foundation to start a new life.
Contact: Garry Hojan JHAERO( a division of JH Industries, LLC)
PO Box 2221 Priest River, ID 83856 Tel: 208-366-4047 JHAERO. COM
She raised two very rambunctious kids and did it by sometimes having three jobs to put clothes on our backs and food on the table while living in our two-bedroom apartment. I’ m sure she’ s where I get my stubbornness and grit from.
I spent a lot of time in my imagination, and part of that time was looking at things to connect with my dad. He was a Renaissance man; friends and family would say,“ There’ s nothing he couldn’ t do.” He built horse barns, welded, painted, worked in leather, charcoal, and oils, gardened, worked with birds of prey, sold food products, and was a family man. He was a great artist, winning the Canadian Culinary Arts Award twice. Once, he spent weeks in an unheated basement making a Daniel Boone-esque statue out of animal fats and bronze leaf.
50 NORTHWEST AEROSPACE NEWS