Bill Long & His Airports – Part 3

By the late 1960s, Bill Long was well-established as Lorain’s aviation pioneer. He had already been the subject of a 1959 article in the Lorain Journal when he was 74 years old. Thus by 1967, at the age of 83, he had become even more larger than life – and consequently was profiled again in the Journal. 

Here’s the article, which appeared in the paper on May 19, 1967.

In the article he mentions many of the famous people that he rubbed elbows with, including Charles Lindbergh and Henry Ford.

By the time of the 1967 article, the City of Lorain had been trying to acquire Long’s Airport for other uses for some time. In this article, which ran in the Journal on Dec. 16, 1968, Long apparently agreed to sell – but like previous agreements, this one crashed and burned as well.

Bill Long passed away a few years later on Feb. 9, 1971. (I posted his obituary here.) What became of all the things he accumulated over the years – his aviation trophies, scrapbooks and antique cars? They were all sold in a series of circus-like auctions held at his house and his airport. This article from the May 23, 1971 Journal tells the somewhat sad story.

It would be interesting to find out what, if anything, of Bill Long’s personal effects ended up down at the Lorain Historical Society.