Obituary of Jerry Julius Lankenau

JERRY JULIUS LANKENAU
June 16, 1933 - December 22, 2019

Jerry Julius Lankenau, the only child of Floyd William and Dorothy Kane Lankenau, was born in Joliet, Illinois on June 16, 1933 during the depths of the Great Depression. As the son of a Ford executive, Jerry attended kindergarten and first grade in a one room schoolhouse in the historic Greenfield Village. Singing Christmas carols with Henry Ford was just one of many memories from this time. After a brief relocation for his father to work on the Ford Exhibit for the 1939-40 New York World’s Fair, the family lived on a farm near the Ann Arbor Municipal Airport, where Jerry spent most of his free time doing odd jobs in exchange for airplane rides.

After the war, the family moved to Dearborn where Jerry attended Fordson High School. Working odd jobs after school and during the summer, Jerry eventually saved enough money to pay for flying lessons and to buy his first airplane, a Piper J-3 Cub, before he even had a pilots’ license or owned a car. Jerry flew his J-3 everywhere for about a year before one of his flight instructor friends realized that he hadn’t yet taken the written exam or flight test. After Jerry easily aced the fifty true or false questions on the written exam, a number of his instructor friends got together to properly “complete” his logbook so he could take his check ride with the FAA examiner. Jerry soon found himself on his way to Korea, courtesy of the US government. Unable to talk the Army into letting him fly liaison aircraft on his own terms, he ended up driving tanks in a reconnaissance unit.

Returning from the war, Jerry learned about a new program in aviation management being offered by the University of Miami, so he headed south from Detroit to pursue his dream career. To support a more adventurous lifestyle while in college, Jerry maintained a successful part time sales position for an import auto dealer, selling mostly Triumph TR3’s and Renault Dauphines. This lifestyle included founding the University of Miami Water Ski Club. With waterskiing still a relative novelty in the mid 1950’s, the clubs’ many tournaments, shows, television specials, and an entertainment contract with Gulfstream Racetrack brought national attention to the university and generated significant income—and fatefully introduced Jerry to his future wife. When the club needed additional skiers for the racetrack contract, Jerry placed an advertisement and Sandy responded, chaperoned to the interview by her younger brother, Irvine. Six weeks later, the couple eloped while Jerry was driving Sandy back to Coker College for the fall term. Soon after, Sandy dropped out and returned to her new husband in Miami, and they remained together until her passing in 2010.

Upon graduation, Jerry was offered a position with Ford Motor Company in Industrial Relations, returning to Michigan with Sandy and daughter Tami in tow. Not long after, his father, Floyd, retired from Ford after a long career as their Landscape Architect and began a commercial/industrial landscape company in 1959. Lankenau-Damgaard and Associates, Inc. needed a project superintendant for their first contract, the Upjohn General Offices in Kalamazoo, the world’s largest landscape construction project at the time. During their time in Kalamazoo, Sandy gave birth to son Kip, who eventually joined Lankenau-Damgaard after completing his degree at MSU.

Lankenau-Damgaard & Associates flourished under Jerry and Floyd’s management and included such prestigious clients as Dow Chemical, The Trane Company, General Motors, SS Kresge, Avon Products, Metropolitan Life Insurance, John Deere, and of course Ford Motor Company, Ford Motor Land Development and many others. With major projects spread around the US, Jerry made good use of his flying skills, using company aircraft for site inspections and meetings, locating plant material, and frequently transporting architects and owners’ representatives. During these years he was very active in Rotary and the Associated Landscape Contractors of America, where he served in many roles, including President and as a representative on the National Construction Industry Council.

An active father and family man, Jerry could frequently be found at horse shows or cleaning stalls for daughter Tami, or attending orchestra concerts or scout campouts with his son, Kip. But any discussion about family life must include airplanes, because in his mind it was not possible to travel anywhere unless flying in a Beechcraft Bonanza. There were trips at least twice a year to Florida to visit Sandy’s family, a weeklong winter ALCA excursion for Jerry and Sandy, another weeklong ALCA summer meeting for the entire family, fishing expeditions to northern Canada, adventures in Mexico, not to mention air shows, air races and fly-in pancake breakfasts. By the mid 1960’s, Sandy earned her pilot’s license, joined the Ninety-Nines (International Organization of Women Pilots), and was participating in women’s air races and derbies. Significant for the Lankenau’s and other flying families in southeastern Michigan was the formation of The Flyers Club in May of 1965. The group met monthly for socializing and to plan flying trips, which included junkets to Martha’s Vineyard, Mystic Connecticut, Put-In-Bay, Williamsburg, Wright-Patterson AFB, Niagara Falls, Gatlinburg, Mackinac Island, annual color trips, and canoe trips down the Rifle River.

In later years, Jerry and Sandy bought a home in Dallas to be close to Kip’s family. Their close proximity allowed them to take an active part in raising their grandchildren, once again attending school and scouting functions, swim meets and antique car tours. Although not as frequently as before, they did manage to make many trips to visit family and friends. Thanks to some good friends, Jerry even managed to remain an active pilot until just before Sandy’s passing in 2010.

Jerry will always be remembered for his smile, his many stories, his love of family, and his many friends.

He is survived by daughter Tami (Lankenau) and husband Marvin Johnson, son Kip and wife Debra (Veazey) Lankenau, granddaughter Tatyana (Lankenau) and husband Sean Rust, and grandson Vladimir Lankenau.

Pilots’ Notes:

• First flight October 12, 1951 (Piper J-3 Cub)
  Last flight June 16, 2008 (Mooney M20J)
  Total time logged 8,168.8 hours
• Commercial pilot, single and multi-engine land, instrument rating (became CFII in later years)
• Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award – February 15, 2007
• Aircraft owned (in historical order)—Piper J-3 Cub, Luscombe 8E, Stinson 108 Voyager, Beechcraft Bonanza (35 & V35A) and Beechcraft Baron.
• Other aircraft flown/logged: (aircraft observed to have flown, but not logged)
  Aeronca – Champ
  Beechcraft – Musketeer, Debonair, Travel Air (Twin Beech, Twin Bonanza, Queen Air, King Air, T-34)
  Cessna – 140, 152, 182, 206, 310, 401, Citation II (210, 337)
  Dassault – Falcon 200
  Mooney – M20F, M20J
  North American – T-6 Texan, P-51 Mustang
  Piper – Cruiser, Vagabond, Tri-Pacer, Seminole (Super Cub)
  Rearwin – Skyranger
  (Schweizer – SGS)
  (Stearman – 75)
  Taylorcraft

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