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Gone West: Colgan Air Founder Charles Colgan

Passed Away In Aldie, VA At Age 90

A noted aviator and businessman has Gone West. Charles J. Colgan, the founder of Colgan Air, passed away Tuesday at a hospice facility in Aldie, VA at the age of 90 due to complications from a vascular ailment.

Colgan was not only a businessman and entrepreneur, but he also was the oldest-serving member of the Virginia Senate. He was first elected in 1975, representing the Washington D.C. suburbs of Manassas and Manassas Park and other areas of Prince William County, according to an obituary in the Washington Post.

Colgan served in the Army Air Force at the end of WWII, serving as an airplane mechanic in Italy. After the war, he became a pilot and moved to Virginia.

He and other investors founded Colgan Airways, an FBO and flight school in VA. That business eventually grew into Colgan Air, which operated regional service for airlines that included Continental and US Airways. It was sold to Pinnacle Airlines in 2007.

Colgan often joked that he was the only licensed airplane mechanic in the Virginia General Assembly.

Funeral services are pending.

FMI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colgan_Air

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