Brian Passey |

When you grow up with Charles Lindbergh as a family friend, it’s easy for aviation to become a hobby.

That’s the case for Cedar City resident John Gurney. His father, Harlan “Bud” Gurney, and Lindbergh became friends as teenagers and spent many years together, barnstorming around the country as they performed air shows during the Great Depression. They later flew for the U.S. Air Mail, and actor Murray Hamilton even portrayed Bud in the 1957 film “The Spirit of St. Louis,” starring Jimmy Stewart as Lindbergh.

“My father was my hobby, so I decided to make this downstairs into a museum for him,” John says as he walks into the basement of his Cedar City home.

Dozens of photographs, articles and other memorabilia connected to Lindbergh and John’s father hang on the walls. Yet some of the memorabilia is connected to John’s own history as a gyroscope engineer and pilot for the movie industry.

Even John’s wife, Dorie, has connections to the industry. Early in her marriage to John, she began talking with his father about the intricate fabric work required for restoring antique airplanes. Although few women did this kind of fabric work, she took it up and what began as a hobby became a money-making skill for her.

“I thought, ‘This would be really nice. I could work with my husband,’” she says of the fabric work. “I was very meticulous. I was very particular with how I did it.”

Looking around their basement museum filled with historical aviation memorabilia, Dorie says, stirs up memories of the small airport in Santa Paula, Calif., where the couple lived for many years. Their two daughters would roller-skate around the hangar while she recovered antique planes and John posed with models for photos to be used in various aviation-themed advertisements.

“Each one has a story,” Dorie says of all the photos in their basement.

The most prominent part of their collection is an airplane propeller that spans the length of one wall. It came from a plane used in the film “The Spirit of St. Louis,” on which Bud served as technical director and a young John was tasked with releasing the balloons in one scene.

It makes sense that the family would be a part of a film about Lindbergh, who flew with Bud from about 1922 to 1928. Bud and the famous aviator met in Lincoln, Neb., where Lindbergh was receiving flight training. Bud had left home in his mid-teens because he had 15 siblings and his parents were unable to feed all of them. But with Lindbergh, Bud found a love of aviation that would turn into a lucrative career.

“They took their first airplane ride together,” John says.

In fact, it was Lindbergh who gave the nickname “Bud” to John’s father. John says Lindbergh would often refer to the shorter Harlan as “Buddy.” The nickname was eventually shortened to “Bud” and Harlan became known by that name for the rest of his life.

As they began barnstorming together, Lindbergh and Bud traveled the county, doing stunts like wing-walking and parachuting. They later both worked for the U.S. Air Mail before Lindbergh went on to complete his legendary solo, the nonstop flight from New York to Paris.

John remembers Lindbergh visiting his family’s home during World War II, when the pilot was serving as a civilian consultant to the military for the war in the Pacific. He next saw Lindbergh during the filming of “The Spirit of St. Louis.”

Then in 1958, a year after the film released, Lindbergh stayed with the Gurney family overnight and interviewed Bud about his life history. John and Dorie still have a copy of that interview, now burned to a CD.

“I remember him interviewing Dad,” John says. “I was sitting in the corner listening.”

Throughout the years, Lindbergh and Bud often exchanged letters. John and Dorie have a book filled with copies of that correspondence, which they keep in their home museum.

The last time John saw Lindbergh was during one of the pilot’s visits to Santa Paula about four years before his 1974 death.

Family of flight

After Bud’s barnstorming and Air Mail days with Lindbergh, he became an airline pilot, working for TWA and United.

The Gurney family also had a collection of their own airplanes that included four de Havilland Tiger Moths. John had unlimited use of his father’s airplanes, and they were also used by some famous pilots. In addition to Lindbergh, astronaut Buzz Aldrin and actor Cliff Robertson flew the family’s planes.

One piece of framed memorabilia on the Cedar City basement wall is a flight log for one of the Tiger Moths that includes signatures from Lindbergh, Aldrin and Bud. The plane happened to be one that Dorie had restored.

John even gave Aldrin a plane ride to an event when the astronaut was unable to fly himself. And Dorie did the fabric work on a World War II-era biplane owned by Stan Worth, a composer who wrote music for television shows and films in the 1960s and 1970s. Worth was killed in 1980 when he crashed the same plane.

The Gurneys also rubbed shoulders with Matt Jefferies, who created the Starship Enterprise for the original “Star Trek” television series. Jefferies had a hangar near the Gurney hangar and painted a depiction of one of their Tiger Moths in flight for them. The painting is also now part of the family’s home museum.

They didn’t just know people in the movie industry. They were part of it. John flew planes in a number of productions, including the 1985 film “The Aviator,” starring Christopher Reeve.

Dorie says her husband impressed the filmmakers by doing one scene in a single take, so they put a star on a dressing room door for him.

When John wasn’t modeling for aviation advertisements or flying in films, he was traveling the world for his job as an engineer for Litton Industries, which was later bought out by Northrop Grumman. John visited more than 30 countries through his work and appreciated the chance to learn about the people of the world.

Dorie often traveled with him, which gave her a chance to return to Germany, where she had served as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She was in Germany when the Berlin Wall was erected and happened to be in Europe when the wall started to come down, making it back to Germany in time to witness its fall. She took home a few small pieces of the wall to remember the occasion.

It wasn’t just the Gurney men who flew. John’s mother had a pilot license and Dorie took lessons but never received her license. However, because she knew how to fly, she was able to take the controls from time to time while flying with John, a licensed pilot.

“We put 1,000 hours on an airplane in our first two years of marriage,” he says.

Now, as they approach their 50th anniversary in October, they still have a passion for flight — even though they no longer fly themselves. The passion is apparent in their basement museum dedicated to pilots like John’s father, Lindbergh and Aldrin.

Yet, John doesn’t consider himself part of that history, humbly asking that the focus remain on them, not him.

“I’m not famous, but the people I knew were,” John says. “I’m just a fan.”

Follow Brian Passey on Twitter, @BrianPassey.