Iowa native Dorothy Schaeffer moved to the Twin Cities metro area to find work, landing a job as the airport director’s secretary. She became an expert at all facets of airport operation, dealing with contractors, airlines, the FAA and visiting VIPs.

When she became the assistant airport director, she also became the highest-ranking woman executive at an American airport. She is now retired but continues to serve the airport community through the Metropolitan Public Airport Foundation.

Inducted 1996

Schauss built his first airplane in 1929 and learned to fly. By 1935 he had built two more planes. In the 1960s he constructed a Volmer amphibian and advised the Hopkins High School industrial arts class which constructed two class-built aircraft projects.

Schauss carved his own propellers for his home-built planes and became widely known in this fiend. He has since carved hundreds of propellers for others building their planes at home.

Inducted 1994

Chad Smith was born in Iowa, but moved to Minneapolis with his family when he was quite young. He spent 1923 and 1924 with the Army Air Service at Kelly Field, Texas. He returned and obtained a degree in Pharmacy at the University of Minnesota. He joined the 109th Observation Squadron, and set an altitude record of 22,017 feet in a military plane. In 1927, he was hired as a pilot for Northwest Airlines, and set a speed record between La Crosse and Milwaukee. He later set another record in a Ford Trimotor between St. Paul and Chicago. In 1928, he flew over 1173 hours, (an average of 3.2 hours/day,) quite a feat in planes of that period. He gave flight instruction in Northwest Airways Waco trainers as a sideline to his airmail flights. Chad Smith was a brother to twins, Lee and Les Smith, also hired by the airline. His sister, Gladys Roy, was a parachute jumper and wing-walker. Chad became Operations Manager of Northwest Airways in 1931 when Speed Holman was killed in a stunting accident. Chad, himself, died less than four months later, while undergoing an appendix operation.

Inducted 1993

Twin brother to Lee, and younger brother of Chad Smith. Les took his first plane ride with Walter Bullock in 1924. He followed his two brothers in the barnstorming business and was hired by Midwest Air Transport in Madison, Wisconsin when Lee went to work for Northwest Airways. Les followed him there in 1930, being the twelfth pilot hired by Northwest. He also was a member of the 109th Observation Squadron from 1933 to 1937, during which time, he was forced to bail out of an O-38 observation plane. In 1943, he was one of the pilots who flew in a mass transport armada across the mountains from China to India in C-46 aircraft. He retired from Northwest in 1963.

Inducted 1993

Younger brother of Chad Smith and a twin to Les Smith, Lee graduated from Minneapolis' South High School in 1926. He enlisted in the 109th Observation Squadron as a mechanic, and learned to fly from his older brother, Chad. He ventured to Hibbing, where he took a job with an air taxi service, also doing barnstorming, and instructing. After earning his Transport license, he was hired by Midwest Air Transport in Wisconsin as a general service pilot. In June of 1929, he was hired by Northwest Airways. Lee was the first Northwest pilot to fly on instruments, flying a mail plane between St. Paul and Chicago. He became the Eastern Division Superintendent in 1943, Vice-President of that Region in 1944, and retired in 1967. Lee was one of the founders of ALPA, the Air Line Pilot's Association.

Inducted 1993

Montana native Paul Soderlind received his private license on his 18th birthday. At age 19 he went to work for Northwest Airlines as an instrument instructor and flew in the Northern Region during World War II. He joined the Navy in 1944 and flew with Naval Air Transport Command.

Soderlind returned to Northwest after the war and developed many safety procedures. He eventually became director of technical flight operations, a unit that plans cockpit procedures. He and Don Sowa produced Northwest’s Turbulence Plot Program to detect wind shear and other high altitude turbulence.

Inducted 1996

Minneapolis-born Niels Sorensen became interested in flying in 1930 while working on a farm near Wold-Chamberlain Field. In 1932 he joined the Naval Reserve. He acquired private, commercial and flight examiners licenses; taught flying at Oxboro and Cedar Airports; and set up flying clubs. Later he taught in the Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPTP) through 1941 before serving as a naval aviator, and an aerobatics instructor for the Navy at Minneapolis, St. Louis and Whidbey Island. Toward the end of World War II, he flew patrol bombers in the Aleutians.

Following the war, Sorensen and Ed Sieber opened Lakeland Skyways at Minneapolis and later moved to Crystal Airport. He retired in 1977 after 31 years to build replicas of antique aircraft. He remained active in the aviation business community.

Inducted 2000

Sowa was born in Montana and studied meteorology at the Spartan School of Aeronautics, Tulsa, Oklahoma. He joined Northwest Airlines in 1945 and worked in Minneapolis, Seattle and Anchorage before becoming meteorology superintendent in 1959.

Under Sowa’s guidance, Northwest became the industry leader in gathering and using weather data. He pioneered studies of low-level wind shear, mountain and clear-air turbulence as well as their effects on airline operations. He also helped develop Northwest’s Turbulence Plot Program, which provided pilots with up-to-the-minute weather warnings and helped Northwest to gain the highest reputation for passenger safety and comfort.

Sowa lectured worldwide, published numerous papers on weather and earned several prestigious awards. He retired in 1986.

Inducted 1995

In the mid-1920s Rosie Stein worked as a secretary for Colonel Lewis Brittin, St. Paul Civic Association head. When Brittin became chief operating officer of the brand-new Northwest Airways in 1926, Rosie went along. She did virtually everything around the airline’s main office including feeding the woodstove, answering phones, purchasing, selling tickets, handling the bookkeeping and keeping things running smoothly.

From 1934 through 1941 she served as both assistant secretary and a director of the airline—one of the first such executives ever with a major airline. In 1939 she became director of passenger services (chief of the cabin attendants) and continued in that role until she retired in 1946.

Rosie died in 1954 but left behind a legacy: her familiar answer every time someone asked her how things were going. She always replied, “Everything’s rosie.”

Inducted 1991

Robert Steinbrunn was born in Pennsylvania. He joined the US Army in 1966 and attended helicopter school at Fort Wolters, TX. He was assigned to the 17th Air Cavalry as a gunship pilot flying the UH-1C “Huey” helicopter at Pleiku, Viet Nam. Following this assignment, he flew in assault helicopters with the 189th Assault Helicopter Company, performing re-supply, artillery spotting, medivac, and troop extraction missions. Among his awards were the Purple Heart and the Air Medal.

Following his combat time, he became a military flight instructor and also earned his civilian ratings. He then worked in the Pacific Northwest as a heavy-lift helicopter pilot. In 1974, Steinbrunn came to the Twin Cities to work for Imperial Airways out of Fleming Field, St. Paul. His assignments included powerline patrol, concrete pouring, tower erection, and eventually with Imperial Airways contracted to North Memorial Hospital, as air ambulance pilot. A few years later, the service was purchased by North Memorial and Steinbrunn began working directly for the hospital. In his military career and his nineteen years as a medivac pilot, Steinbrunn has dedicated his life to his fellow man.

Inducted 2005

Stenseth, who was born in Norman County, Minnesota, enlisted in the Minnesota National Guard in 1916 and took Army officers’ flight training in Ohio. As a member of the 28th Pursuit Squadron in France, he became one of Minnesota’s four World War I aces and scored six aerial victories.

Stenseth made the Air Corps his career and served overseas in Norway, Latvia and the Philippines as well as at several fields in the United States including Kelly, Langley, Selfidge, and the Washington D.C. air base. In the process, he rose to the rank of brigadier general. During World War II he was base commander of Las Vegas Field (now Nellis Air Force Base) from 1941-1943 and then commanded U.S. forces in Iceland. He retired in 1950.

Inducted 1995

Faribault native Elizabeth Strohfus learned the thrill of flight after an airplane ride in her teen years. She borrowed money for flying lessons and joined the Civil Air Patrol. During World War II she volunteered for the Army Air Corps and was sent to Sweetwater, Texas as a member of the Women’s Air Force Service Pilots. She volunteered as a gunner but was rated as an instructor. She taught instrument flying to male cadets and later ferried B-17 and AT-6 warbirds around the country.

After the war, Strohfus raised a family and didn’t fly again until she received a 1991 invitation from the Confederate Air Force. She was re-energized and later got a ride in an F-16 fighter. In recent years she has traveled around the state speaking to groups on behalf of women aviators. She is one of Minnesota’s most visible aviation ambassadors.

Inducted 2000

Cincinnati-born Bud Sweet served in the Air Corps in World War II before attending the University of Wisconsin. He lectured on airline regulation and worked as a general accountant for Wisconsin Central Airlines in 1948. He rose through the ranks, becoming assistant treasurer, secretary-treasurer, vice president and finally president and CEO in 1976.

Before he retired in 1984, Sweet helped Wisconsin-Central become North Central Airlines, forged a merger with Southern to become Republic Airlines, and helped his growing airline absorb Hughes Airwest.

Inducted 1999