Robert McClure Love, Date Unknown
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Robert M. Love landed with passenger Mrs. N.H. Love under
special circumstances at Tucson on January 28, 1936. He
and Nancy Harkness were married in Boston January 11, 1936,
and took a 3-week honeymoon to California.
We find them visiting Tucson in the middle of their honeymoon. They
were flying a new Beech B-17-L Staggerwing NC14415 that was
purchased to operate on Robert Love’s Inter City Airlines. Based
in Boston, MA they were enroute from Phoenix, AZ to El Paso,
TX, probably on the return leg of their honeymoon. NC14415 is still with us and is being restored by Ranley Nelson near Pittsburgh, PA. Follow the link to learn more about this interesting airplane.
If you examine page 212 of the Register, you will see that
Nancy signed the Register three days earlier during a solo
round robin Phoenix to Tucson in the same airplane. There
is no notation as to why she might have flown to Tucson without
Robert, unless it was just to stretch the legs of the new
airplane. She signed the Register as “Nancy
L. Harkness”, perhaps not yet used to her married name,
which she later adopted as Nancy Harkness Love. Image,
below, of log page 212 with the Love’s signatures under
the actual ignition key of their Staggerwing.
An interesting note on their airplane is that it still exists,
is registered with the FAA and is being restored to flying
status in Butler, PA. Please follow this link for
images (scroll down that page a bit).
NC14415 Ignition Key
From Ranley Nelson's Collection Signatures of Love and Harkness in the Davis-Monthan Airfield Register are Just Above the Key
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Robert Love was born in Brooklyn, NY March 5, 1909. He
was educated at Princeton University and the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology. He taught flying in the early
1930s and sold airplanes. He developed a small regional
mail and freight airlin and molded it into Inter City Airlines
in Boston in 1932. In 1938 he became president and
director of the company’s successor, Inter City Aviation. After
WWII his postwar company, All American Airways, Inc. eventually
became Allegheny Airlines.
During WWII he was an Army Air Force pilot and then deputy
chief of staff of the Air Transport Command, with the rank
of colonel. At the same time Nancy headed Women in
the Air Force from 1942 to 1944.
Below, a sunny, breezy day photograph of Nancy and Bob.
Nancy Harkness and Robert Love, Date Unknown
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Robert was named president of Allegheny in 1948, retired
as chairman in 1956, but remained a director until 1975 when
he was named director emeritus.
Love
was a yachtsman, and at his death was treasurer and director
fo the Vineyard Yacht Corporation, which he had founded. He
won a couple of races around Martha's Vineyard in 1958 and
1960. He passed away on October 9, 1983 at Pomfret, CT. Nancy had predeceased him in 1976.
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Dossier 2.1.111
UPLOADED: 06/06/07 REVISED: 02/13/08
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