As the daughter of a Pan Am captain in the 60s, Lucia Renshaw learned to navigate before she learned to drive. She had a full passport before she had a savings account. And she knew the Pan Am flight schedule better than she knew her class schedule. What she didn’t know was the story about her father’s role in World War II. Not that she didn’t try. One time, while holding up a calendar of famous Pan Am “first flight” planes, she asked her father, “Which ones did you fly?” He replied simply and shortly: “All of them.” Four years ago, she started poking around to find his story. When she uncovered a thread of a story about her father, then Lt. C. Downer Renshaw (U.S. Army Air Corps), flying photo reconnaissance in the Caribbean in 1939, she pulled the thread. What she found launched her into the story of pre-war political intrigue, Pan Am’s roles in World War II and the excitement of the then new field of aviation. In elaborate deals forged by Pan Am’s founder Juan Trippe and FDR himself, the airline created a supply chain that ran from Miami all the way to the top of the world in China. One of the pilots was the father of our DMA member Don Loomis. Lucia, whose father also took part in this vital war effort, will tell the story of these secret missions and give the history of the airline throughout its wartime operation.
Lucia Renshaw was born and raised in Westport and went to Staples High School. In 1975, she graduated with degrees in Business and Political Science from the University of San Francisco. It’s a long way from Westport made even longer by the fact that to get to the West Coast on Pan Am, she had to fly first to London or Guatemala. After a 35-year career in marketing management in financial services, she was able to expand her hobby of family history research. Her real passion lies in helping people discover the history 10 of their ancestors who served in the Civil War and World War II. She is currently using her skills to find the children of her father’s colleagues from the war years of Pan Am to share with them what she has learned. Don Loomis, Jr., was one of those treasured finds. Lucia currently lives in Phoenix with her husband Bruce Covill (www.DarienDMA.org).
