Former state Sen. Ulysses Lee “Rip” Gooch, a pioneer for African Americans in aviation, died Wednesday. He was 98.
Gooch, the grandfather of former Senate staffer and Democratic Party executive director Kerry Gooch, served in the state Senate from 1993 until retiring in January 2004.
When he left the Senate at 80, he was the oldest serving state senator.
When he was in the Senate, he introduced the bill that created the African-American Affairs Commission.
Born in Ripley, Tennessee in 1923, Gooch was the son of sharecroppers and the grandson of emancipated slaves.
Orphaned at age four, Gooch dreamed of flying from his earliest days as he watched planes fly overhead while working in the fields as a youth – a dream that later came true as he logged more than 20,000 flight hours over his lifetime.
Gooch joined the Army in high school during World War II and was stationed in the Philippines as a sergeant overseeing a construction operation.
He graduated from his hometown’s Lauderdale High School while in the military.
After returning home, Gooch started taking flight lessons.
He earned his private pilot’s license in 1947, and continued with advanced flight training, later becoming a stunt-show flyer.
Unable to find aviation work because of discrimination in the South, Gooch moved to Wichita in 1951 to work for Boeing where he worked as an inspector.
While working at Boeing, Gooch decided to start his own flight business, becoming one of the first African American-owned fixed-base operators in the country, which opened the door for other Black pilots.
As the owner and operator of Aero Services Inc. at Wichita’s Rawdon Field, Gooch provided flight training, charter service, aircraft rental and storage.
By 1972, Gooch’s business grew into an extensive government-contract air taxi operation with a fleet of planes that moved classified material between U.S. military bases in 17 states.
Gooch also worked for 20 years as a freelance charter pilot, flight instructor and pilot examiner. He also worked as consultant for Raytheon Aircraft.
In 2001, Gooch was one of the initial inductees into the Black Aviation Hall of Fame.
Additionally, he had a lengthy association with the Tuskegee Airmen organization, which preserves the history of African Americans who served in the Army Air Corps during World War II.
In 1993, Gooch was given the Kansas Governor’s Aviation Honor Award, which recognized him for a scholarship program that introduced youth to aviation by taking them to Tuskegee, Alabama, where they could get behind the controls of a plane.
He was credited with the formation of the International Black Aerospace Council, an umbrella organization of five major African American aviation organizations.
He served on the Aviation Advisory Committee for the Kansas Department of Transportation, the Air Museum Task Force and the Wichita Airport Authority, and was a member of the Kansas Museum Aviation Board.
In 2006, Gooch collaborated with journalist Glen Sharp to publish his autobiography: “Black Horizons: One Aviator’s Experience in the Post-Tuskeegee Era.”
Two years later, Gooch was the subject of a documentary film: From the Bottom, a double entendre for the region of the country where he grew up and where he was in life when his mother died.
“I’m beginning to know what the bottom was about,” Gooch said in the documentary.
“Not only was I living in the land that was referred to as the ‘The Bottom,’ but I was probably in the bottom of my life,” he said.
“My mother died, and she left me in the bottom,” he said.
In 2012, Gooch was presented the Trailblazers Award from the Kansas African-American Museum in Wichita.
The Kansas Senate honored him in 2013 with a resolution as he approached his 90th birthday “for his devotion to public service, his success in the aviation industry and his zeal for living.”
House Minority Leader Tom Sawyer of Wichita mourned Gooch’s passing.
“Through his dedication to his life’s work — both privately and publicly as a former state senator —he leaves a lasting legacy as a champion of the civil rights movement, and soaring above and beyond in the field of aviation,” Sawyer said in a statement Thursday.
Kansas Treasurer Lynn Rogers praised Gooch on Twitter late Wednesday night.
“Sen. Ulysses Lee Gooch was a true leader who lived a remarkable life and will be deeply missed, Rogers tweeted.
“My heart goes out to his family during this incredibly difficult time.”
Democratic state Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau called Gooch a “pillar” of the Wichita community.
“A great man!!!” she posted on Facebook. “He will be deeply missed.”
Republican Attorney General Derek Schmidt shared a similar reflection on Facebook after serving with in the Senate.
“I always admired and respected him and his remarkable American life full of service,” Schmidt posted.
“Rip rarely spoke during Senate debate, but when he spoke people listened,” Schmidt wrote on Facebook.
A memorial celebration is set for 2 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 18 at the Kansas Aviation Museum in Wichita.
