Gordon Baxter, who for more than 20 years wrote the Bax Seat column in Flying, passed away on June 11th at the age of 81 from a respiratory illness. Gordon is survived by his wife, Diane, nine children, 16 grandchildren and a host of friends and admirers.
A longtime radio personality and professional character in Beaumont, Texas, Gordon came to aviation and to Flying with a folksy, outsider perspective on aviation that reminded his readers why they fell in love with the sky in the first place. Bax never really wrote about equipment, regulations or statistics; his essays always covered the same ground-the discovery and joy of flight-but did so in a way that made his reader’s see the subject anew each time they turned to Gordon’s page. Indeed, this appeal made Gordon’s column the best read page in Flying for many, many years, and his impromptu chats at Oshkosh every summer drew standing room only crowds of people who quickly learned that Gordon was every bit the poet in person as he was on the printed page.
