Born: 03/02/1928
Died: 05/22/2004
Inducted: 10/16/1999
Aviation has been a family affair for Sam Johnson
since his boyhood days when his father, Herbert Johnson, took him up
for father and son flights in the Waco seaplane and Sikorsky S38
owned by the family business, SC Johnson Wax.
Sam soloed in a Piper J-3 at age seventeen in
1945. He went on to earn a commercial pilot certificate while
piloting a Beechcraft Bonanza, Stinson Voyager and an amphibious
Grumman Widgeon.
Throughout
his career Johnson has maintained and enlarged the family commitment
to aviation as part of his business, philanthropic and personal
life. Sam Johnson is a leading supporter of the Experimental
Aircraft Association (EAA) as a whole and in Racine, where SC
Johnson's first company aircraft is on display at the local
chapter's education center.
In 1998 Sam and his sons, Fisk and Curt, re-created the historic
1935 Carnauba wax expedition of Herbert Johnson. Flying a replica of
the Sikorsky amphibian that his father flew from Racine to Brazil,
Sam restated his family commitment to aviation, history, education
and the environment.
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