Dean Farran, "California WWI Soldier Photographs, 1917-1918." (Source: ancestry.com)

Dean Farran was born January 1,1892 (Happy NewYear!) in Wamego, KS. At left he is posed as a young man, date inknown, but the image was categorized at ancestry.com with the title, "California WWI Soldier Photographs, 1917-1918." Note his high, removable (probably celluloid) collar.

Farran has a decent Web presence. As well, Farran visited our Registers seventeen times between 1928 and 1936. He landed ten times at Oakland, CA, twice at Davis-Monthan and five times at Grand Central Air Terminal.

One site visitor stated, "He built a glider in Long Beach with Larry xxxxx, my neighbor’s father in 1912, then joined the Army Air Service in WWI.   Flew for Pickwick Air Lines in 1929-30 and was last known to be test-flying for Vultee in the late ‘30s. I’d like to know what he was doing during WWII and after."

His first landing at Tucson was on December 18, 1930 in the Ryan B-5 Brougham he Identified as NC314K. Additional, probably earlier. photographs of the airplane are at the link. He carried two passengers, Carl B. Squire and Jack Miller. Based at Burbank, CA, they arrived from Burbank and departed to the east for Ft. Worth, TX. Passenger Squire was an officer of the Lockheed Aircraft Company.

In 1931 Farran and fellow pilot Theodore Gildred planned and flew a goodbill flight from San Diego to Quito, Equador. The following photograph, exact date unispecified, from the SDAM Flickr Stream, is captioned, “Theodore Gildred and copilot Dean Farran (in flying helmet) arrived to a hero's welcome at Quito, Ecuador.” I have circled Farran and Gildred. Gildred was a pilot but not a signer of any of our Registers.

Dean Farran (Circled, L) and Theodore Gildred, Equador, Ca. 1931 (Source: SDAM)

Below is the airplane they flew to Quito, NC731M, a Ryan Brougham, s/n 213. See the airplane at the link shown above, as it landed at Tucson preceding his Equador trip.

NC731M, Probably Equador (Source: ancestry.com)

Further to that voyage, Theodore Gildred, Sr., his copilot, was an aviation pioneer of sorts. The following, from the International Air & Space Hall of Fame at SDAM, documents the Gildred family's interests in aviation.

"The Gildreds could be considered a 'First Family of Flight,' and sought to better international relations while doing what they loved, flying. Starting with Theodore Gildred's flight to South America in 1931, their legacy of groundbreaking flights coupled with goodwill was passed on through the generations. Theodore Gildred, Sr. was born in 1900 in Rochester, New York. He grew'up and was educated in Argentina and Ecuador before attending New York University, where he graduated in 1918 as a civil engineer. He learned to fly in 1925 at Dutch Flats, in San Diego. Later, inspired by Charles Lindbergh's epic 1927 flight, Theodore Gildred, Sr. took off from San Diego on March 13, 1931, in a locally built Ryan B-5 Brougham, beginning a 19-day, 4200 mile goodwill flight to South America. He was greeted by 15,000 spectators in Quito, Ecuador. After his historic flight, he donated his aircraft "Ecuador" to the people of Ecuador as a goodwill gesture to encourage growth of aviation in that country. Returning to San Diego he married Maxine Edmonds, and, in 1934, relocated to Mexico City with his family, where he would lead a very successful life as an entrepreneur and philanthropist. Ted Gildred, Sr. died in June, 1967, in San Diego. Prior to his death, he established the Gildred Foundation in San Diego, which has made major contributions to medical research through the Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation, Salk Institute, and University of California at San Diego. Exactly 50 years after his historic 1931 flight, Gildred's son, Theodore Gildred, Jr., recreated his father's famous flight, flying a 1943 Stinson Reliant. After successful completion of the 1981 commemorative flight, the Reliant was donated to the people of Ecuador to help them establish their own aviation museum. In 2006, Gildred, Jr. and his sons Ted III and Stephen flew "Ecuador III - The Spirit of Goodwill" to Ecuador to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the original flight. Ted, Jr. was dedicated to helping the people of South America develop a strong and vital infrastructure. Theodore Edmonds Gildred was born on Oct. 18. 1935, in Mexico City. He passed away on January 3, 2019, at the age of 83."