Knowledge Of Aviation History Called 'Encyclopedic'

ANN has learned of the passing of David Walter Menard, who followed an Air Force career with a stint as the historian at the Air Force Museum in Dayton, OH.

Menard joined the Air Force in 1955, serving as an aircraft maintainer in Africa and Greenland as well as four European and five Asian countries. He also was stationed at six bases in the United States. He rose to the rank of Master Sergeant before retiring in 1977.

According to an obituary published in the Chicago Tribune and relayed by the website legacy.com, for the next 22 years, he worked at the Air Force Museum at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, OH, first working on aircraft restorations and then becoming the museum's historian. His knowledge of military aircraft was called "encyclopedic."

Menard retired from the museum in 1999, and began a full-time volunteer career at the NICU and ER at Dayton's Children's hospital helping care for critically ill and injured children. He passed away February 5, 2013, in Dayton, OH, at the age of 76. He is survived by a brother, six nieces and nephews, and five grandnephews.

FMI: www.nationalmuseum.af.mil