Learning Center Our Enshrinees

John D. Odegard

• Prolific pilot who logged over 10,000 flight hours with an airline transport certificate for single- and multi-engine aircraft, including Learjet, Cessna Citation, and Beechcraft. He was also a certified flight instructor and an FAA pilot examiner for a large variety of type ratings.
• While a student at the University of North Dakota (UND), he revitalized the school’s flying club and worked as a crop duster. His master’s thesis, titled “Feasibility and Cost Analysis of Institutional Private Aircraft Transportation,” was so successful that he was granted permission to launch an air transportation service for UND officials.
• Founded UND’s Department of Aviation in 1968, which would be renamed the John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences in 1997. The department began with a single office, two donated planes, and twelve students; it is now UND’s second-largest degree-granting school with more than 500 faculty and staff, 2,000 students, and 100 aircraft.
• Became President of the University Aviation Association (UAA) in 1970, a national organization focused on standardizing aviation curriculum, and chaired the UAA’s Airway Science Curriculum Task Force. Served on the North Dakota Aeronautics Committee for twelve years. 
• Helped develop the FAA’s four-year degree for technical managers expected to work with a National Airspace System that grew more and more complex. He initiated a partnership between the FAA and the UND School of Aerospace to use satellites to broadcast aviation curriculum into college classrooms across the country. 
• In 1986, he was key to the development of SPECTRUM, an airline pilot training program that became an industry standard in commercial pilot training.