Pilot And Entrepreneur Had A Cameo Role In The Watergate Scandal

Former WWII fighter pilot and hearing aid entrepreneur Kenneth Dahlberg passed away Tuesday at his home in Deephaven, MN. He was 94 years old.

File Photo

The entrepreneur founded the company which became Miracle-Ear, which he later sold to become a venture capitalist who helped finance other companies. But before his business success, he had been a highly-decorated fighter pilot during WWII. Drafted just before the U.S. entered the war, he became a pilot and flew P-51 Mustangs on such missions as support of the D-Day invasion in 1944.

The Washington Post reports that Dahlberg was credited with 15 victories, including one mission in which he racked up four kills over Paris. He was also shot down three times during his tour in Europe. Twice, he was able to rejoin his unit from behind enemy lines, but he was not so lucky the third time. He was captured by a Nazi patrol and was a POW in Stalag VII near Munich for the last few months of the war.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that Dahlberg had a fleeting brush with the Watergate scandal. A fundraiser for the Nixon re-election campaign, he had endorsed and delivered to the campaign a $25,000 check that turned up in the bank account of one of the burglars, which tied Nixon to the incident. It was a legal check from the former chairman of Archer-Daniels-Midland. Dalhberg was cleared by a grand jury of any wrongdoing in the case, but it remained as a footnote to his career. A biographer said that while Dahlberg said the scandal "made good copy," he thought it was unfortunate that the small incident often overshadowed his military and business accomplishments.

The Minneapolis paper reports the Dahlberg remained an active pilot, flying with the Minnesota Air national Guard until 1951, and as a civilian either as pilot or co-pilot into his 90's. He was inducted into both the Minnesota and Arizona Aviation Halls of Fame.

FMI: http://mnaviationhalloffame.org/HoFPages/hofD1.html